Holidays at Hogwarts
by randomwriter05
Summary: What happens when relationships suffer and new ones form? It all begins during Holiday break when a certain two are left behind. Ron and Hermione come together finally after some "distractions" R/Hr ALL THE WAY! H/Hr VERY BRIEFLY. H/G continued.
1. Chapter 1

What happens when Harry and Hermione's relationship begins to suffer right before he leaves for holidays and Hermione is left at Hogwarts with a lot to think about. It will be M, so leave if you don't enjoy. Harry and Hermione in the beginning but this story is for Ron and Hermione all the way.

Disclaimer I own nothing. All J.K.'s.

Ron, Harry and Hermione all sat in the Griffyndor common room after another long day of classes. It was the day before the majority of the wizards and witches in training departed on holidays. Ron was distracted by some second years making a mess while Harry and Hermione spoke to each other.

Harry glanced over to his girlfriend "are you sure you're going to be alright staying here for Christmas Hermione? I can always stay behind from my trip with Sirius if you need me to" he stated sincerely.

Hermione appreciated her boyfriends concern and almost took him on it before realizing how selfish she would be being. "As much as I'd love for you to stay and keep me warm this Christmas" she smiled coyly before she straightened her toned "I can't let you leave Sirius to do it all alone. And I know you were looking forward to spending time with him. So go, don't worry about me I'll manage just fine." She smiled hoping to convince Harry that him leaving her for three weeks wasn't the closest thing to torture she can imagine.

Harry smiled he loved that she cared about his mission as stupid as it was, she always cared about the little things. He stood up from the couch he was sitting on and stepped towards the chair Hermione was in, "Just message me and I'll be back as soon as I can be" he said as held his hand out for her to take. He pulled her a little closer to him and placing a chaste but soft kiss on her lips, he grinned. "For any reason" he said implying he'd come home for "that" as well.

Hermione smiled playfully and kissed him again, this time a little bit longer but just as soft as all of their kisses are. Harry pulled back as soon as it got a little passionate as he always did. He hated dramatic public displays of affection, he didn't like the feeling of everybody watching him and he could to nothing to stop it.

Hermione hated this, she loved getting lost in the moment and see how far it could go but with Harry he always stopped for some reason or another. He rarely ever risked them being alone and his fear of pda always cut good things short. Even though they had spent many evenings "studying" late in the library, it was usually the only time they were alone and even Hermione felt weird doing anything less than innocent in front of her favorite books. They spent most of the time talking with only a few occasions of short lived snogging. But today she wanted to see if she could change that up a little bit. After all he was leaving her in less than 12 hours, not to be seen again till after the New Year.

As Harry pulled back Hermione reached out for one of his hands, as she caught it she started toward the portrait and an exit quickly followed. It took Harry a few seconds to question what was going on.

"Hermione?" he asked surprised. "where are we going?" this time there was excitement in his question.

Hermione turned and smile before sharply pulling in the opposite direction to catch a shifting staircase. The two ran up the stairs to a hall entrance that was new to Harry but Hermione seemed to have been here before. About ten steps into the new hallway, away from direct light of the stairwell, Harry felt himself being pulling once again but this time he watched as Hermione backed herself slowly against a dark wall, pulling him towards her. She had pulled Harry to within inches of their bodies touching. Harry finally had a little bit of smile on his face. It was Hermione who finally spoke. "I'm waiting" she whispered, all of sudden feeling a tinge of self consciousness.

She didn't have to wait much longer though, as Harry quickly covered her mouth with his. Hermione's hands softly rested on Harry's chest. Harry's hands began to wander down her sides and back up. He leaned in to deepen the kiss and pressed his body against her slightly. Her mind was racing she couldn't believe that he was finally taking things a step further, Hermione was now in shock this was officially the furthest he'd ever taken it. Her hands moved from his chest to wrap around his neck and pull him closer.

Hermione felt Harry start to pull away but was relieved when his mouth moved to place kisses on her neck, he had never done this to her before and Hermione let out a gasp and attempted to pull him even closer. It was then that Harry pulled away again, this time for good. He was breathing a little heavier than normal, Hermione let out a disappointed sigh as she let her head leaned back against the wall. Her hands dropped from his neck but Harry's stayed on her sides.

Hermione was frustrated "Harry why do you always do this?" she said quietly but loud enough for both of them to hear. She looked back towards the entrance to the hallway willing herself to start walking.

Harry looked confused for a moment. "What's wrong?" he asked with worry.

Hermione's eyes shot back to his, she thought that there was no way he didn't realized what he was doing. She shook her head, arguing with herself about whether she should bring it up or just let it go. She didn't want to have him leave for the holidays with them in a fight. Hermione chose to drop the subject as much as it killed her to do it.

She forced a smile "nothing, don't worry about it". She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Harry looked at her for a moment, placed a kiss on her forehead and smiled. "You know you can tell me anything" he said. She for the first time didn't believe she could. Faking another smile she replied. "I know, really it's nothing".

"You sure?" he asked. She nodded yes. "Ok, we should be getting back. I'm sure someone noticed our absence." His hands finally left her sides and grabbed a hand to head back. Hermione silently followed.

It's just a start but it's going places I promise. Reviews are welcomed.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: it's not mean to infringe upon anything.

The trio had just spent the last two hours in the Gryffindor common room talking about anything and everything. It was the first time in a long time that there hadn't been some sort of life threatening disaster on the horizon, it was refreshing.

Ron seemed to the only person to notice that Harry and Hermione had left the common room earlier. And when he asked where they had run off too Harry simply responded "Just had to talk for a minute". Hermione had sat there while the three of them talked often looking at Harry he would barely make eye contact with her but he didn't seem any different than usual.

"Oi, Hermione snapped out of it already." Ron blared. Harry then looked at her wondering what was going on since he obviously hadn't caught on. Hermione blushed slightly.

"I don't know what you're talking about" she shot back at Ron.

"Right, you've been burning holes into the side of Harry's head since we sat down. That stare of yours is deadly" Ron said meaning to lighten the mood, but failed.

Hermione's mouth just dropped a little, she didn't think she had been so obvious. She recovered quickly though and looked to Harry, she shrugged her shoulders "I guess just day dreaming" she smiled. She immediately wanted to leave the room, she could tell Harry was confused and the look of worry was now spreading across his face as he watched his girlfriend.

Hermione didn't like the way the two men in her life were looking at her like she was acting crazy, she stood up quickly. "If you'll excuse me gentlemen I am going to wash up for dinner" she improvised. Dinner wasn't for another hour but Hermione felt the situation becoming awkward and she wanted to avoid that. Harry made a move to stand but Hermione put her hand out "it's ok I'll see you at dinner?"

Harry just sat back down and watched as Hermione disappeared up the stairs. Ron noticed the tension, he had been noticing it a lot lately. Not that he really cared, he knew the second Hermione chose Harry he had no chance. It had taken him a long time to come to down to earth about the whole situation. His heart still broke nearly every time he saw them touch, but he was getting better at hiding it.

Harry turned to Ron. "She's been a bit off lately hasn't she" Harry stated. He hoped Ron had some sort of inside information. He didn't want it to be what he thought it was.

Ron didn't have the heart to tell his best mate that she really had been off. Over the last few weeks he had noticed Hermione going through strange moods, he noticed it most when her and Harry would return from studying in the library. It wasn't as if she was being mean or outwardly acting strange, but it was… different. Quiet. Ron wasn't used to Hermione being quiet around him, so when she wouldn't engage in their daily banter Ron noticed. He looked at his friend. "What do you mean?"

Harry rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know it just feels different sometimes. I mean it only lasts for a little bit but I feel like every time we…" Harry cut himself off from actually saying the word. He knew Ron once had a thing for Hermione, a pretty strong thing actually. Ron had sworn up and down that it was ok that his two best friends were dating, but both Harry and Hermione had made it a point to not go to in detail about their relationship in front of, or with Ron. Harry needed someone to talk to about his problem though and Ron was the only person he could think of that could be of any insight.

"every time you what…?" Ron pushed. He didn't know why he was asking, he didn't want to hear what they did in their private time. But it just came out, maybe he deep down just wanted to hear it to make it clearer that he would never get _that _girl.

Harry looked up, "when we, well… " Harry seemed to choke on the words "get physical?". He didn't mean for the word to come out as a question but they hadn't really even gotten physical so the word didn't seem right to him.

Ron coughed back his initial reaction and spoke. "uh, er… physical?!" he asked, his voice nearly squeaking at the word. Ron had no idea there relationship was that serious, the blank looks and quiet demeanor of Hermione finally made a little more sense. Maybe Harry was pushing her to far or something maybe that's why she was acting strange. At that moment he had to fight the urge to throw a punch at his best friend because he couldn't imagine anyone hurting the semi-secret love of his life. Ron was holding his breath when Harry spoke up again.

His elbows were on his knees and he was leaning closer to Ron " well not, not physical physical" he made hand motions that he thought would portray physical, but just looked awkward. Ron finally let out the breath he had been holding and leaned forward as a sign for Harry to continue. "well, I mean we've kissed. We've kissed plenty actually, I think we're rather good at it even…" he stopped and looked towards the fireplace, he looked like he was remembering a moment.

"But…" Ron prodded. Hoping that there was a but.

Harry broke his gaze with the fire, he had a hint of a goofy smile on his face "what? Right… the problem. You're gonna think I'm a total git." He confessed. Ron said nothing and just waited.

"It's just that every time, Hermione and I" Ron could tell Harry was having a hard time talking about it. "you see, every time we start to go past kissing" more awkward hand motions.

"ok, right, I'm just going to say it. I do think I can go past kissing, ever." Harry looked to his friend. "well at least not with Hermione".

It took Ron a second to get his head around what he was just told. "That doesn't make any sense, why couldn't you?"

"heh, it's not like I don't want to. Trust me I wish more than anything I could" Ron sucked in another breath to hold. "I just think there is something wrong with me, every time I get… aroused…" Harry looked down yet again. "Like, whenever we go past anything but a long kiss and start to think about what to do next." Harry started to rub the scar on his forehead. "It's like HE is there". Ron gulped, he had never expected this to be the problem, he actually felt sorry for the bloke.

"You mean…?" Ron stuttered.

"Yeah, dead serious. I know he's long gone. I don't even have the nightmares anymore. But when she's involved it just feels like my head is going to explode." Harry felt like he had had a weight lifted off of his shoulders. Ron was searching for words but Harry continued. "I asked Sirius what it could mean, he says she probably triggers some sort of nerve of mine when we get that close, how could such a blessing of a girl because such a curse to my head. Why can't I be just the tiniest bit normal?"

"I don't think she knows that it hurts me but she definitely notices when I pull away all the time. I can tell that she doesn't want it to stop, and neither do I. I just can't take that pain. " Harry confessed.

Ron had just listened to Harry come clean about his problems with Hermione and felt horrible because he couldn't help but be happy that they were having troubles. He felt bad for his friend and if it was any other girl but Hermione he'd be the first to lend a hand in curing this "illness", but it was Hermione and he couldn't. His heart wouldn't let him. But he had to say something.

"Have you tried a spell or a charm or anything?" Ron asked trying his best to be a good friend and offer ideas.

"I've tried them all. I'm hoping to find something over break when I'm with Sirius, but who knows. I know she won't be able put up with this for much longer without an explanation. And I can't tell the girl I'm falling in love with that getting intimate with her feels like having an evil wizard in my head raising hell. Literally." Harry put his head in his hands. This wasn't the first time he had to deal with the thought of Hermione's reaction to him, but it was the first time he said it out loud. It was just as bad as it sounded in his head.

Ron's heart sank for the 10th time since this conversation had started. "Did you say you were falling in love with her?" he forced the words to leave his mouth. He completely ignored the rest of the stuff that Harry had said.

Harry nodded his head. "Yeah mate, I think I am." He looked back at Ron. "You can't tell her any of this, promise me. I'm going to try everything I can to do something about it while I am gone and deal with the results good or bad when I get back from break."

It was Ron who hung his head now. After hearing the "L" word in reference to his love from someone else's mouth, he didn't know what to do. He tried to keep his emotions in check the best he could. He tried to smile and laugh it off. "Don't worry, you're secret is safe with me"

"Thank you, and try to keep her happy while I'm gone. I know staying at Hogwarts isn't your favorite thing to do for the holidays, but since you are keep her company for me?" Harry said trusting Ron with everything he had.

"I'll see what I can do" Ron said, almost wincing in pain as he said it. He didn't think he could spend much time alone with her now. He knew too much, before he just played dumb to their relationship all together, but with this information he didn't think he could handle it.

The two boys sat in relative silence until it was time for dinner. Hermione emerged once again and Harry stood to meet her at the bottom of the stairs. She seemed back to normal, as she always was after she took a break from Harry and their alone time. This time Ron was the quiet one.

More coming.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: J.K. Rules.

George and Fred had joined them for dinner, most of the students had left on the train before dinner and the grand dining room felt very empty.

"Oi! What kind of trouble do you think we can get into in three weeks lil brother." Fred cheered as he slid hard into Ron on the bench.

"We have a few new candies to try out on you, I think you'll enjoy them" George added.

"Yeah you will they are bloody brilliant" Fred and George exchanged a high-five.

"Hey Harry, did you change your mind mate?" Fred asked.

Harry looked at him "Change my mind about what?"

"You're not on the train back to London… does that mean you here with us for another Christmas?"

"Oh, no I leave in the morning, I got a different ride." Harry answered. He looked to Hermione to see if he could catch on to any reaction to him leaving. He really felt bad about leaving her. She was focused on her food.

"Oh well have fun, mate. Don't worry we'll hold down the fort for you" George essentially ended the conversation and began eating.

It was Fred and George who were making the most noise at the table but Hermione felt that it was way to quiet.

"umm, Ron you're awfully quiet." She pointed out, half to get him back for calling her out earlier in the common room and half actually wondering why he was being so quiet. He was one of the most talkative people she knew.

Ron's ears went bright red. He had been keeping to himself the entire meal, he was having a hard time looking at Harry and Hermione across the table. Every time he saw Harry look at her he thought to himself that he would do anything to switch places with him right now.

Ron dropped his fork on his plate. "Yeah, sorry." He started to stand up from the table. "I'm not feeling very well I'll think I'm going to turn in." He gathered his things. "Night Harry…Hermione" he let out a small smile for her name.

Hermione watched him leave and wondered what was wrong. She made it a point to talk to him the next day, it wasn't like him to just leave a meal.

The remaining group members made small talk for another hour before Hermione asked Harry if he'd walk her back to the common room. He of course smiled and held her hand as they walked.

"I left you a Christmas present under the tree. I've instructed Ron how to open it for you, so you can't cheat before Christmas Eve" Harry smiled, she knew how much she loved presents.

"Oh how thoughtful" she said sarcastically "I've already sent yours ahead to the hotel you told me you'd be at. You can open it whenever you'd like" She smiled and squeezed his hand.

"I'll look forward to it." He said as they reached the portrait that led them into their house.

She loved times like this with Harry, just easy and simple. The problem was she knew it couldn't be like this forever and she couldn't help but think for the worse when he all but refused to take their relationship to the next level. On more than one occasion she thought he was cheating on her because of it but would always push that idea out of her mind as quickly as possible.

When they entered the room she looked to the tree and immediately saw the present she knew was hers.

"So what did you get me?" She turned to face him.

"Well if I tell you that then there would be no reason for the spell I have over it now would there" he grinned and grabbed her hands in front of him.

Hermione looked down between them and their joined hands, she didn't want to start this again. Her head was still reeling in frustration from their previous encounter and she was sure she'd be able to handle another one of his abrupt stops. She feared she would lash out. Instead she merely raised to her tip-toes and gave him a swift kiss on the lips.

"Do you want me to wake early and see you off tomorrow?" She asked.

Harry looked at her, the kiss she had just given him had sent him some confusing signals and he wasn't sure what to make of it. Then her question which he thought would be a no-brainer hit him as well.

"Wasn't that the plan all along? Breakfast and good-byes?" he asked unsure now.

"Oh well yes, it was. I just wasn't sure if you had changed your mind or not"

"Hermione why wouldn't I want you to?" Harry asked. He sounded a little upset.

"Harry, I wasn't saying that. It was just a question. Please let's not argue about this." Hermione dropped her hands from his. Harry just got more upset, he felt that she was slowly slipping away and it was all his fault.

"Well I want you there." He stated.

"Ok, I'll be there." She answered but not with the reassuring tone he had hoped for.

"Ok. 7am. I'll be here. Waiting" he spoke, every word sounded miserable. Hermione felt horrible for making him feel this way but she couldn't bring herself to fake being happy for much longer. It wasn't like she wasn't happy with Harry, but she thought she shouldn't have to try so hard.

"goodnight harry" she feigned the smile she knew he loved.

"goodnight" he leaned in to kiss her. She kissed him back but only for a moment, it was Hermione who was now pulling away. She took it as her moment to turn for the stairs that lead to the girls bedchamber.

Harry just watched her as he always did. She gave him another smile before disappearing. Harry felt defeated. That was the closest they had ever come to having an argument about their relationship and he didn't feel good leaving for three weeks on that note. He made a mental note to try and fix it in the morning.

He entered the half empty bedroom of his all of his roommates had already left, except for Ron who was reading on his bed from the light on the end of his wand.

"Feeling better Ron?" Harry asked as he began to change for bed.

"Yeah it was just a little headache, I just needed to lay down" he lied. "How was the rest of dinner?"

"Well Fred and George never cease to entertain. They went on about a courage potion they plan to slip in to Malfoy's pumpkin juice after break. That prat deserves it." Harry had finished changing.

"Courage potion? Doesn't that seem like the last thing anyone should be giving Malfoy?" Ron asked actually interested in the reason.

"You know you're probably right, I think it was the humble potion they were going to give him. Sorry I was distracted."

" Much more sense. Distracted by what" he hoped he didn't go into more detail about Hermione even though he knew that's why he was distracted.

"I think I'm losing her Ron." Harry was now lying on his bed.

"What makes you say that mate" Ron perked up a little.

"I just feel it coming. It's been a cycle now for the last two weeks and not it's just coming to a head. I guess we'll see. Night Ron." Harry didn't want to talk about it anymore he just wanted to get some sleep in.

"Yeah, night" Ron sat up a little straighter. He spent the next hour wondering what the punishment for using this intel to his advantage with Hermione but against Harry. He knew he couldn't but obviously couldn't help but want to.

Ron's last thoughts before falling asleep were of what it would be like to be with Hermione. Needless to say these thoughts quickly turned into Ron's own personal nightmare of him walking in to his home bedroom only to see Harry and Hermione "getting physical" on his own bed. He woke abruptly and was covered in a cold sweat. He saw no end to this torture she was unknowingly putting him through, he was going to have to keep busy away from Hermione for the next three weeks or it would surely be the death of him.

Readers stick with me, it's killing me having Ron and Hermione apart for so long haha. Don't worry as Harry departs the action escalates. I just have to set it up haha.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: not really mine.**

Ron had watched the whole thing from afar. He had woken up with Harry to help him get some things together and met Hermione in the common room at 7 with Harry. He wasn't sure but he thought he saw a look of relief on her face as she saw both of them, rather than just one of them.

He had spent a silent tension filled breakfast with them both as well, everyone seemed to be acting normal enough but he had a feeling he wasn't the only one that felt like if someone didn't say something soon he was going to explode. He racked his brain for something to lighten the mood. He was sitting across from Hermione though and every he looked at her it seemed like the words would just scramble in his head.

Harry cleared his throat. It was about time that Sirius would be arriving to pick Harry up and he still wanted to talk to Hermione alone. He was determined not to leave things at all awkward but he still wasn't sure how he was going to go about that.

He turned to Ron after he took his last bite. "Ron?"

"Yeah" he said swallowing the last bit from his plate.

"Could you do me a favor and grab my bag for me and meet me at the gate?" Harry asked as he started to stand up.

"Yeah sure mate, no problem" Ron watched him stand up. He felt he was obligated to help his friend, it was the only thing he could do to try and displace the guilt for the thoughts he had about the girl that was sitting across from him.

"Hermione would you join me" Harry half held out his hand as he circled around the table to her side. He half expected her not to take it so when she did Harry smiled.

"Excuse us" she politely said, it was directed towards Ron.

"Ha, Excuse away" Ron said sounding carefree. He himself now stood as well and he began walking towards the door. Half way there he turned and called to Harry. "Oi!, try to make it quick. Its break and I woke up way to early to see you off. I'll be needing a nap soon." Ron half-joked. It was a joke because he meant it to be playful, but he secretly did want them to make it quick and really didn't want Harry to and Hermione to fix things. He was selfish like that.

As soon as he left the room he all but sprinted to pick up Harry's things and bring them to Hogwart's entrance. He waited for Harry and Hermione to emerge for what seemed like forever. He finally noticed them down the grand hall way. They looked like they were talking about something they didn't want to talk about.

Down the hall Harry and Hermione had walked in relative silence since the dining hall. Hermione had stayed up late the night before nervous about this situation. She didn't know how they got here or what they were going to do now that they were here but she knew she couldn't keep going like this for very much longer. Just three weeks earlier it seemed that their relationship was near perfect, conversations came easy, they shared just about everything. It was even easy when it was just the three of them and even that seemed to be changing. Ron seemed a little more distant that ever and she felt guilty about it. She never wanted to hurt his feelings by taking his best friend away from him.

As Hermione's mind was all over the place, Harry's mind was quite still in one place. He stopped them short of the entrance and turn Hermione towards him. He glanced up and saw Ron messing with his bags. He had been trying to think of what to say all morning, he just wanted things to get back to normal but he was sure he couldn't do that all in the five minutes before he left.

They stood facing each other without speaking for a moment. Hermione was still in her pajama's and her hair was pulled back loosely. It was a look he didn't see often on her and he had to say he liked that she did try as hard as some of the other girls at school and still looked just as beautiful.

He had been feeling the same way Hermione had, he wondered what happened to them in such a short amount of time. Of course he blamed himself for his little "intimacy problem", but now he was thinking that had grown to something bigger.

"Listen, Hermione." Harry looked into her eyes. Hoping she could just read his mind instead of making him put it into words. She looked back at him.

"I don't know why, but for some reason I feel we've been off lately." Harry looked to the ground. Looking to gather what he was going to say next.

"Harry you don't hav…" Hermione started but Harry cut her off.

"Yeah I do. Just please, listen. I don't really know how to say it." His hands were shaking. Hermione looked at him nervously, was he breaking up with her?, she took a baby step back. Harry's shaky hands went out to pull her back.

"I know I've been acting weird lately, and I just want you to know after the holidays, when I get back… it'll be different." He let out a little sigh of relief feeling that he atleast addressed the problem instead of just ignoring it like he had been doing for awhile now.

"Different like how" Hermione asked quietly, she still thought this was the end and she wasn't sure if she was ok with it or not.

Harry sensed the waver in her voice. "Good different." He smiled. "Like we were before but… better". Harry was convincing himself as he was trying to convince Hermione.

Hermione didn't know what better meant, but it meant they could deal with it later. Something she very much so wanted to do. This was all too much and she had a lot to think about. First and foremost what her and Harry's future looked like. She smiled at her boyfriend so disguise her real thoughts.

"Write to me while you're gone?" she asked, this was something she knew she truly wanted. Harry was better at communicated if he had time to think about it, his letters always explained more than any conversation they had in person. It was one of the reasons she fell for him. She knew if anything his letters would help her make her decision about them the easiest.

Harry took the question as a sign that she accepted his kind-of sort-of plan. A big grin grew on his face. "Of course".

Ron had watched the confrontation go from tense to friendly within a minute. Their body language said everything. He couldn't help but be a little disappointed, but he knew he couldn't come between Harry and Hermione, as much as he knew he wanted to.

Ron heard the loud bang of a vehicle screeching to a halt outside. He figured Sirius has arrived and was proven correct as the shaggy haired man walked through the doorway. He greeted Ron and asked where Harry was hiding.

Ron pointed at the couple. "Oi! Harry you're carriage awaits" he said and followed it with a bow when Harry and Hermione looked up. Hermione chuckled at her friends sense of humor.

The two neared the doorway.

"Good Morning Harry! Are you ready for this adventure of a life time?" Sirius asked enthusiastically.

Harry smiled. He was actually very excited for this trip, before he was distracted by the guilt that came from leaving Hermione and now he looked forward to being distracted from Hermione for a little bit. Maybe that's exactly what he needed, maybe he needed to clear his head so he could get it working again.

"More than ever old man." He finally left Hermione's side and gave a manly hug to Sirius to welcome him.

"Well it's looks like I'm off." He turned to Hermione one last time. "I'll miss you" he kissed her goodbye. Ron had to look away.

"I'll miss you too" she smiled back. She wasn't lying, she really would miss him but she was looking forward to their time apart. Absence makes the heart grow fonder right.

He came to Ron last and shook his hand. "Have a great holiday season mate, I'll be sure to bring back souveniers." Ron laughed and handed Harry his bags. Harry and Sirius made their way to the door.

"You kids stay out of trouble!" were the last words both Ron and Hermione heard from Harry before he left with Sirius. Leaving the two friends standing in the doorway.

"He was talking to you, you know that right" Hermione joked. "I never get into trouble" she smiled.

"That just means you never get caught. Where is the fun in that" Ron joked back.

It was always comfortable between them, minus that last few days. Hermione could already feel the weight lifting off her shoulders.

"Are you still going to take that nap? Or do you want to do something, I feel the urge to blow of some steam" Hermione said while stretching her hands above her head.

Ron couldn't believe how hard was to act normal around her now. Up until recently he had been able to control his denial. But with Harry's confession the day before and the weird behavior too, his feelings were far too close to the surface to just hang out with her, for good times sake. He had to get a handle on himself before any quality time was spent or she would surely notice him being off.

"Well, I don't want to be anywhere near you and hot steam" the sarcasm lined his voice. He paused for dramatic effect "I actually am dog tired though, I didn't sleep very well last night. See you at lunch?"

Hermione had to admit she was bummed but didn't think anything of Ron skipping out. He did like his sleep.

"Well I supposed I could save you a seat"

"gee Thanks, I know how long the line is too sit next to THE Hermione Granger" he teased.

"I know right, consider yourself lucky." She said as she began to walk past him.

Ron just stood there as she walked down the hall in the opposite direction. "yeah this is going to be way harder than I thought" he said out loud exhaling a deep breath. The kind he always hold to hold in when he was around her.

Ron finally made his way to his bedroom to attempt to sleep for the next few hours.

**Ok so it's about time Ron and Hermione got some alone time right? Don't worry the next few chapters are R/Hr all the way. Sorry it took so long, I like to attempt to develop a background to characters, I find it means more when stuff happens between them. Weird right. Haha hope you enjoy more coming very soon. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: not mine, but not yours.**

Ron was awoke to someone shaking him rather violently. When he opened his eyes he saw his two older brothers standing above him.

Ron rolled over and mumbled "Can I help you two?"

"yeah, were you planning on getting out of bed at all today mate?"

Ron glanced at his clock, it read 9:30. "what are you talking about I've only been asleep for an hour" he placed his pillow over his head in an attempt to silently tell his brothers to leave him alone.

Fred grabbed the pillow and hit Ron in the head. "Oi! It's 9:30 PM! You little prat. We were just coming to see if you were alive."

Ron opened his eyes, suddenly awake. He had just slept all day long, he now noticed that it was dark inside his room besides a lamp in the corner. He sat up.

"Why didn't anyone come get me?" he asked as he started to get out of bed.

"We've been up here twice! Ginny and Hermione even snuck up to give it a go. You were out. If you hadn't been breathing we would have to call somebody." George rambled.

Ron shook his head. He couldn't believe he just slept the entire day away, even more he didn't know he was capable of doing it. He didn't even have a dream, just a complete deep sleep. Then a detail George had mentioned flicked on in his mind. Hermione had come to see him. Why couldn't he have woken up to that visitor instead of his loud obnoxious brothers.

"Weird" was all Ron said. "I guess I was more tired than I thought" he shrugged. He stomach growled. He had missed dinner but figured he could go to the kitchen and put something together quick enough. He slipped on his slippers and headed to the door, he looked up to see his brothers still staring at him.

"What?" he asked.

"Are you sure you're ok?" They asked in unison.

Ron felt fine. Well rested and knew it was going to take about a week to back on a normal sleeping schedule but he felt right as rain.

"I'm fine. Really. Just Hungry" he stood and waited for the two boys to accept his answer. They nodded their heads and left the room in front of Ron and went down the hall to their chamber.

Ron made his way down the stairs that led to the Great Hall. He quietly cursed himself for not grabbing his robe. It was very cold and all he was wearing was a white t-shirt and black sweatpants. He shivered as he got closer to the great hall, thinking he was going to ask the elves for something warm for the walk back.

Hermione had spent most of the day in the library studying. For what she didn't know but she always found herself studying when she wanted to avoid something else, today it was thinking about her relationship. She had gotten so focused on her books that she had completely spaced eating dinner. She had moved from her chair since she had gotten back from trying to wake Ron up nearly five hours earlier.

She rubbed her eyes, she was exhausted and couldn't wait to get a solid night of sleep. She packed up her things and left the library planning a stop to get some food on the way. Moments later she tiredly stumbled into the dining room. She nearly dropped her books when she saw someone else was in there already.

Ron turned quickly as he was startled. The only light in the room came from a few candles on the table where Ron's food was being made. Hermione felt relieved to see Ron, mostly because he had finally made it out of bed and also so she could have someone to talk to for just about the first time all day.

She made her way to the table and sat across from him. She kindly asked the elves to mix her up a salad and looked to Ron to start a conversation.

Ron had watched Hermione calmly come over to him and sit like she had hundreds of times before. He wished it was so easy for him.

"So how was the coma?" she smiled.

Just the sound of her voice did something to at least loosen him up a little bit. "Bloody Brilliant! I haven't slept that well in a long time" he confessed.

Hermione's brow furrowed a little "are you having trouble sleeping?" a hint of worry in her voice.

"I don't think so, I just never feel… rested. I guess. I feel great now" he assured her. "What's with the midnight snack for you?"

"Forgot about dinner. I got distracted in the library" she said as she grabbed some eating utensils.

"You and that library need to take a break from each other for the holidays" he too was grabbing some things to eat with.

"I'm just getting a head start on next semesters lessons, you can never be to prepared you know… Well I guess YOU wouldn't know" She teased.

"There's no need to try if I have you to do my homework for me" he jolted back. They always bantered though and this was the norm for the beginning and end to all of their conversations it seemed like.

Hermione tossed a spoon at him. "See if I help you out ever again" she took a bite of her meal.

"Oh you will. You always do." He smiled. Ron didn't understand what was wrong with him, he was always nervous when he was thinking about talking to her but when he actually did he rarely missed a beat. All the nervousness went out the window when they did this, if only he could figure out how to have that mind set all the time.

She smiled "spose you're right". The two ate their meals and made small talk for the rest of the meal.

"So are you going to sleep all day tomorrow too? Or are we actually going to get to hang out together. I feel like it's been forever" Hermione asked on their walk back to their respective dorms.

"I promised Ginny I would play some quidditch with her. Fred and George might tag along, if you're interested." He cross his arms across his chest as he walked, he forgot to bring something warm back.

"Oh well I don't know… I mean I can already hear the library calling my name" she paused for a reaction, Ron just rolled his eyes at her. "I'm joking. I'm interested" she pushed his arm.

Ron fell sideways but not so much from the push, more from the shock he felt go through his body at Hermione's touch. He steadied himself and looked at Hermione who was looking at her hand, it looked like she had felt it too.

Hermione didn't see it coming at all, the shock was very surprising but to say it was painful would be wrong. It was the kind of shock you would be opposed to having again. "Um… I'm sorry. I don't know…"

Ron rubbed the spot where Hermione had touched him, it was noticeably warmer than the rest of his arm. "well that's never happened before" Ron eyes were wide. "Does that mean something? Like bad something?" he asked but didn't think that there was any way THAT could have meant something bad, it felt to right to be bad.

"I don't think it's bad… just… weird" she said quietly, they both just stared at each other, there was a new tension in the air it was awkward really, but it was enough for Ron to decided to speak up.

"Right, well I guess you have something new to research then" he said pushing the tension out of the air. They both turned to finish the walk back to their rooms. "But you'll have to wait till after quidditch of course" he added.

Hermione smiled. Ron was always good at lightening the mood, something Harry was horrible at. If something was going bad you could bet on Harry making it worse without even knowing it. It was a good change of pace to her everyday life.

"Yeah, maybe you should join me in the research as well, since well you were there for the incident that requires the research" Hermione rambled. She was confused as to why she felt herself blush when she asked Ron to accompany her to the library, probably something to do with the shock they just experienced but she couldn't help but note it in her head.

"You're trying to get to me to study something I won't even be tested on?"

"Oh Ron, quit complaining. It'll do you some good"

They finally reached the portrait and entered. Ron turned to Hermione to give her a hug goodnight but quickly changed his mind, if one touch could cause a shock like that maybe a hug wasn't the best idea. He thought he might just have to go to the library tomorrow, he was very interested in what it all meant and he'd get to spend more time with her.

"Night 'Mione" he said quickly crossing the room to the boys staircase when they entered.

Hermione noticed his speedy departure from her side. "Goodnight Ron" she called back. He was already half way up the stairs, he smiled at gave a half wave. "Meet you at the field at 10" and with that he was gone.

Hermione nodded and went to sit on the couch in front of the fire. This electric shock situation with Ron had caught Hermione off guard. She thought it through in her head, she had to admit Ron looked cute in pajama's and she noticed for the first time tonight that Ron actually had muscles and then had to shake the thought from her head. She was with Harry not Ron, she couldn't be having these thoughts could she. She had never had a shock like that with Harry, did that mean something? She and Ron had touched hundreds of times before why now did something happen. All these questions running through head made Hermione even more tired, she finally made her way to her room to go to bed. Hopefully that's all she needed to clear her head.

Ron had entered his room and spread out on his bed, oddly he felt like he could fall asleep again even after sleeping all day. He thought about Hermione briefly before succumbing to sleep for the second time that day. He pictured her in the snow playing quidditch with him tomorrow, he knew two things he was good at, one being wizard chess and the other was hiding his feelings for Hermione from her and he had a feeling after the next few days the second thing would be dropped from the list.

**And the fun begins. I couldn't just make Hermione realize the day Harry left that she was in love with Ron so bear with me, she'll realize soon enough. And Ron well, he'll be Ron. Thanks for the reviews!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: no copyright intended.**

The adventurous quidditch players only lasted a mere 45 minutes out in the cold and snow of a Hogwarts winter. Hermione was the only one who couldn't fly to save her life so of course Ginny offered up Ron as a teacher.

Hermione was still thinking about her and Ron sharing a broom when she was interrupted by loud laughter behind her. She turned to see all three of the brothers joking with each other, Ron was in the middle obviously being the center of the entertainment with a huge smile on his face. She smiled to herself and silently admired how much Ron had changed since he met him on the train his first year at Hogwarts. His hair was a bit shorter but still shaggy and red, his blue eyes were still as piercing as ever and his goofy grin was still around as well. But the physical differences, the one's Hermione had been having trouble looking past, those were the biggest changes. Ron was a good eight inches taller, all the weight that came with his new height she was sure could only be ascribed to the newly developed muscle definition he had been showing off this year.

Hermione shook her head, she needed to stop all this thinking about Ron, she had been doing it a lot lately and was worried about where it could lead. It hadn't been the first time she had thought about Ron this way though, at least once a school year she would go through what she had come to call a "what-if" phase where she pictured what it would be like to be with Ron, as far more than friends. Of course she never acted on it and if Ron ever got the impression that she was he would always play the oblivious card, she knew he cared about her dearly as a friend but highly doubted he thought of her THAT way. Every year she would come to that realization and the "what-if" phase would end, but this year it felt a little different, she figured it was the guilt about being with Harry and still having this thoughts about Ron.

The five of them made their way back to the common room and Ron suggested a game of wizard chess which his brothers quickly bowed out of, they always lost to Ron and didn't feel like wasting the day listening to their brother gloat. Ron looked to Ginny and Hermione, Hermione was shaking her head.

"Ron you know I'm rubbish at that game, it would be a disaster" she said taking a few steps back trying to escape the scene before getting talked into it.

Ron smiled at her. She really was rubbish at wizard chess. She was also pretty poor at Quidditch as well, he wondered to himself how someone so good at everything just happened to be so bad at his two best subjects. He couldn't complain though, after all he did get to spend the greater part of an hour with her holding onto him for dear life while he pretended to teach her how to fly. God he wished he didn't have to hide his feelings for her, he silently cursed Harry for being a git that didn't appreciate her like he would.

"Oh, come on. I can always teach you. You know I'm a good teacher, you didn't fall of the nimbus once today" Ron jokingly pleaded his case.

Ginny, who had remained quiet since they got there finally spoke up "I'll be on your team" she looked at Hermione "I'm not half bad, and I can't let you go start studying already" she joked.

"Yeah see, Ginny will help you. Between the two of you maybe you can actually make a few moves before I beat you" Ron laughed.

Hermione looked to Ginny, this was the second time today that she had personally interfered to bring her and Ron together. She thought it was a bit odd but decided to look past it.

"Fine" she gave in with a half smile.

"Great!" Ginny exclaimed. The trio sat down at the table and Ron set the board up with one wave of his wand. Ron was right it only took about nine moves before he had them in Check.

"I told you this was going to be horrible" Hermione said while contemplating what to do next. "I thought she was going to assist me in losing" she said pointing to Ginny who was being no help at all, she had been distracted by a newspaper that she had been reading aloud from in an attempt to update the other two on the happenings in the muggle world. Every once and a while she would point to a square on the board for Hermione but that was about it.

"She obviously lied, and I think I've given up on teaching you already. I think you should just accept defeat so the next time you get a better grade than me I can at least make fun of you for this" Ron teased as he played with one of Hermione's discarded pieces. Hermione glared at him playfully "Since when did you become mister confident in the world of everything?"

"hmmmm, I'd say since I realized that I clearly hold the advantage over you in the important things" he smiled. Hermione finally made her move and Ron quickly countered. "Check Mate"

Hermione lowered her head. "I hate my life." She faked a whine.

"Is it over already" Ginny laughed. Hermione's head popped up. "You're joking right?"

"What? Sorry! I got distracted I didn't think you were really going to be THAT bad!" Ginny laughed even harder.

"Well she was Ginny, she hopeless." Ron and his sister both laughed. They both enjoyed Hermione's one and only flaw and the fact that they had discovered it.

"Ok I don't have to take this anymore. I'll leave you two to your chess. I'm going to the library" Hermione said sternly as she got up from the table. For a second the two Weasley's stopped laughing as they thought they really had made her angry but Hermione looked back over her shoulder as she made her way to the portrait and smiled. "And I'm never playing wizard chess again" she laughed and departed from view.

Ron sighed, he was happy she had a sense of humor about herself. He started to clean up the mess but was interrupted by his younger sister taking quick care of it with her wand. He looked at her a bit confused.

"In a hurry?" he asked.

"Not at all. But you should be" she stated.

He looked at her even more confused. "what are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb with me older brother, I know you better than most."

Ron looked at her, he had a faint idea what his little sister could be alluding to but chose to play the dumb card anyways.

"Oh really? And what do you know about me that others don't that says I should be in a hurry?" he prodded.

Ginny eyes narrowed and playful grin came to her face "I see the way you look at her Ron, frankly I'm surprised someone hasn't called you on it sooner."

Ron's heart began to race a little bit, he had never thought he was be obvious about anything. The only other person that had ever even come close to thinking what his sister was thinking was now dating the girl in question.

"Ginny, I think you might be seeing things" he attempted to play it off but the tone in his voice betrayed him and he knew he was caught by the look on Ginny's face. "Oh come on Ginny, like me and Hermione would ever be more than just friends" he rambled.

"Who said anything about Hermione?" Ginny outted him. Ron looked sick to his stomach he knew he couldn't deny it now. His sister laughed "Calm down, obviously I was talking about her."

Ron breathed a baby sigh of relief and put his head in his hands and rubbed his temples trying to gather his thoughts. Ginny watched him worriedly, she had always know Ron had some sort of unrequited love story going on with her friend but from the looks of things it seemed like it was a lot more than that to Ron.

"I didn't mean to upset you" she said apologetically. Ron chuckled and looked at her. "You didn't upset me Ginny, I'm just trying to think if you're the only one who has noticed and am praying to god you are" he smiled weakly.

"Ron?" Ginny was growing more worried about her brother with every moment. She really didn't think it was that serious, after all he let his best friend be with Hermione without so much of a hint of jealousy. It was obviously killing him and Ginny wanted to help him figure it out.

"It's nothing Ginny, that boat sailed long ago." He began to fidget with the chess board again.

"What boat Ron? You never said anything to indicate that there was ever a boat. Why didn't you ever say anything to her?" Ginny was upset with her brother for never voicing his feelings, especially feelings that were as strong as they seemed.

Ron shook his head. His sister was right, why didn't he. "I don't know Ginny, it has just never seemed like the right time. And then she started dating Harry… so that was just the reassurance I needed I guess. She would have never chosen me over him, everyone knows that."

"I never knew that Ron. Frankly I was shocked when they started dating. I never told this to anyone but the week before they became an 'item' me and Harry shared a somewhat… intimate… moment…" Ginny's voice trailed off. It was true, before he started dating Hermione she was almost convinced that Harry wanted to be with her, all the signs were there and they had kissed in the common room while attempting to study. He had written her letters and then all of a sudden that changed.

"Wait… what?" Color was finally returning to Ron's cheeks. He couldn't believe the words even as he was hearing them.

"Me and Harry… well we kissed. And it wasn't like a peck on the cheek either…" Ginny blushed.

Ron was taken aback, his best mate had made out with his little sister a week before getting with the love of his life. A small part of his world had just crumbled a bit. "I don't get it. Why didn't he say anything. Why is he with Hermione now if he was making out with you??" His mind was racing. Did Hermione know about this too, was everyone aware of this but him.

"That's not the discussion we should be having Ron. But yeah I was upset when I found out about them too, but at least I confronted him about it. He said he was sorry and wished things had worked out differently but he thought Hermione was what he needed. I don't accept it, but he knows how I feel and I can see it on his face every time I see him. It's probably why they aren't working out very well."

Ron felt like he had just experienced an information overload. He remained silent while he tried to soak it all in. He felt a little betrayed by both his sister and Harry, but he couldn't help but wonder what this could mean for him and Hermione. "I thought that their problems were because of something else… " he questioned whether or not he should share the information with his sister given his new insight on their previous relations. "what?" she prodded sounding extremely interested. "Well he mentioned headaches, like mind numbing headaches. Whenever they would…" it almost killed him to say it "go any further than kissing". Ron looked torn.

Ginny tried to suppress her excitement. Ron noticed though "That isn't good news Gin, he said he was going to try and find a cure while he was away. Meaning that when he gets back…" Ron shook the image of Harry and Hermione doing anything but talking out of his head. Ginny laughed harder now. "What is so funny?!?" Ron demanded.

Ginny regained composure. "You promise you won't hold it against me?" she chuckled one last time.

Ron was yet again confused. "Yes, of course" he wanted to hear this.

"Well, as you know… I AM a witch. And well after he and Hermione got together I was feeling a bit spiteful, and well long story short I put a sort of spell on Harry." Ginny cringed when the words came out of her mouth. Ron said nothing but looked on as for more of an explanation of the spell.

"So when you just told me about the headaches… it means my spell worked. And to be honest it kind of makes my day."

"Wait why would that make you happy, what kind of spell was it Ginny?"

"Well I had to modify it a little bit but it was a type of intimacy spell. At first it was to punish him but the way it ended up was more of just a way to show me something. You see, the spell basically blocks the ability to be intimate with anyone who isn't… I don't know how to say this… um… number one?" Ginny confessed.

Ron's ears perked up. "Number one?"

"yes, I guess number one in your heart is a better way to explain it. It's basically irreversible. Meaning that there is someone else in his heart as long as he continues having these headaches, but if they all of a sudden go away that means Hermione has earned the top spot so to speak. Does this make any sense?"

"So… you're number one then?"

"I wouldn't know unless we… well unless we tested the spell I guess. But I think the important part is that Hermione isn't. And I think it is bloody obvious that if the spell was cast on you… well you wouldn't have any headaches to speak of when it came to her." Ginny felt like she had finally said what she needed to say.

Ron looked at his sister while he contemplated what all of this meant. All kinds of emotions were running through his head and tugging at his heart. Ginny was right again, Hermione was number one to him, the problem was that he felt strongly that he wasn't the same in hers. His thoughts shifted for a moment to his sister's pain over Harry, he felt bad, mostly because he knew exactly how she felt. Even if she only felt a fraction of what he felt for Hermione he knew it was enough to drive someone crazy, crazy enough to cast a spell even.

"I'm sorry about Harry" he said sincerely.

Ginny smiled "Me too, but you've given me what I needed. Those headaches he has are all the hope I need."

"Yeah well, I wish I was as optimistic as you" he smirked.

"Just don't go your whole time here without ever letting her know Ron. The worst that could happen is that she'll say she doesn't feel the same way, which I HIGHLY doubt. Your friendship is strong enough to survive that, and I think it could be a lot more. Trust me" Ginny said as she began to stand up. "Don't make ME do something about it." She smiled.

"No more spells Ginny, don't worry I won't say anything about yours, but no spells on me or Hermione please. If it happens I want it to be magic free."

"Are you saying you're going to do something about it then??"

Ron shook his head, he had way too much to think about and it was far too frustrating. "Who knows"

Ginny's smile faded a little bit and she began to retreat to the girls wing.

"Ginny." She turned. "Thanks" Ron smiled. He and his sister had never really talked the openly and the more he thought about the more he felt like that was all the push he needed to finally do something about him and Hermione. He also seriously thought about punching Harry in the face for hurting his sister, but he would deal with that later.

**So new developments people, Ron finally getting some encouragement. But what is Hermione thinking about??? Thanks for the reviews! more story coming VERY soon!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: J.k.'s.**

**Just go with it **

_Hello Love, _

_Sorry it took so long for me to write, I've been keeping very busy. I Was in Switzerland two days ago, Egypt today for a top Quidditch match and I am quite excited. Miss you. _

_Harry. _

Hermione took all of eight seconds to read the correspondence she had received via Owl message. She then re-read it about fifty times. Is this really all he had to say to me? Is this what he meant by us getting better? She felt like this was the exact opposite of better, this made her question their relationship even more. Many questions were running through her head and every single one of them angered her even further. She finally let out a sigh of frustration, she had to be over thinking things and she wanted more than anything to give him the benefit of the doubt that he was just busy and didn't have time to write an actual letter. Yes, that was it. He just didn't have the time. She decided to write him back an actual letter, maybe then she would get the correspondence she desired from Harry. But that was easier said than done.

She sat on her bed and began to jot down a recap of the last few days she'd been without him.

_Dearest Harry,_

_I am glad to hear your enjoying your trip. I rather wish I got to go on adventures instead of being couped up at Hogwarts for three weeks but I've been managing to entertain myself quite well I suppose. I've made an attempt to learn how play Quidditch, Ron tried to teach me how to fly, let's just say I need some work. I can say I've gotten a little bit better at Wizard Chess, after a brutal beating from Ron and no help from Ginny I decided to get some practice in. I think I can last at least twenty moves now against Ron, maybe twenty-five against you :). _

Hermione fidgeted with her pen while trying to think of what to write next. Truth was she didn't have a whole lot to write. The last five days had been relatively un-eventful, she had hung out with Ginny a little bit and studied even more. Ron had been around but not long enough to make a difference, he had seemed a little off lately and she was kind of sad about that, she wanted to spend time with him because she had spent very little one on one time with him since her and Harry got together, she missed it. She wasn't going to mention that to Harry however.

_How was Switzerland? Are you and Sirius getting along? Well I should go, don't want to take up too much of your vacation ;). Looking forward to your letters._

_Xoxo ~ Hermione_

Ok so it wasn't as long as she had intended. Truth was, when she thought about it she didn't have much to say to him, she hadn't really thought a whole lot about him since he had left. And up until the letter, or should she say "note", she had been more focused on trying NOT to think about Ron. She folded the letter, sealed it and sent it off. She really needed to get her head on straight, she was always able to put a good façade of being held together. Most of the time that was pretty easy she did have things pretty good. But then why was she now constantly second guessing herself about her romantic feelings.

Ron had always been there for her, even sometimes when she didn't really want him there. For the longest time it had been Ron that she had feelings for, it was always the two of them that were always left with each other when Harry decided he needed to go off and be "Harry Potter, the boy who lived". It was never really a problem but his absence had made Ron and her friendship much stronger than she gave it credit for sometimes. She always knew she had felt something for Ron, something more than friendship, but never acted on those feelings.

The more she thought about it the more she realized her feelings for Ron had never went really gone anywhere, they were just pushed aside because that was easier than acting on them. With the exception of a few prolonged embraces and her childish outburst at the Yule ball before, she couldn't blame Ron for never really noticing her in that way. But with some things she couldn't help but react, especially when she saw Ron with another girl. Ron had a few brief relationships with girls in the last year and each time Hermione saw any girl with him she felt the equivalent of butterflies in her stomach but angrier, like bees or something. She was never nice to these girls, especially Lavender who was not shy about PDA and it drove Hermione crazy. Her subconscious feelings got the better of her one day after Lavender had given Ron an unnecessarily long goodnight kiss Hermione had had enough.

"Slag" Hermione coughed under her breathe but knew it was loud enough for Lavender to hear. Lavender had given Hermione a glare.

"Won Won are you going to let her talk to me like that?"

Ron looked at Hermione and she eyed him back. "I didn't hear anything" he lied.

"Oh you heard me Ron, don't deny it. I'm surprised you'd even stoop this low." Hermione gestured towards Lavender.

"Hermione…"Ron half-heartedly pleaded for her to stop.

"Whatever Ron what you do in your private life is your business, but MERLIN! Keep it private!" Hermione said as she stormed off.

Needless to say Ron and Lavender were over not more than two days later, Hermione smiled to herself as she recollected and couldn't help but smile hoping she had helped that break-up along.

That wasn't the only time she had made off-handed comments about the girls Ron chose to snog, but now that she thought about it neither was he. She had gotten an earful from Ron about her brief relationship with Viktor Krum, Ron made comments nearly every other day about it. Well atleast until she started seeing Harry, all the playful comments stopped after that. Actually a lot of interaction with her best friend ended when she got with her OTHER best friend. While the friendly banter still remained it happen far less often, she couldn't even remember the last time they had hugged or merely touched, minus the recent shockwave… it must have been months.

Hermione felt guilty for the close to the one hundredth time since this break had started. Instead of focusing on what she could do to fix things with Harry she couldn't help but think of ways to start things with Ron. This was ridiculous, she didn't think she deserved either of them at this point but she couldn't help but entertain what her heart was telling her to do. She had to do something, didn't she?

Hermione's clock dinged for the 8 o'clock hour. Her and Ron had set this time to open the presents people had left them. She dropped the contemplation in her head for the time being, she could wait to sort things out later, right now she just wanted to spend some time with her friends. She gathered Ron and Ginny's presents and made her way down to meet them.

As soon as she entered the room and saw Ron she knew, it might have taken her six years to truly believe it but now she couldn't deny it. With his blue eyes he looked at her and smiled before returning to the conversation he was having with George, but he kept stealing glances at her as she set the presents down in front of Ginny. Hermione's heart was beating a little too quick for comfort, where was all of this coming from? She knew the feelings were there but had no idea they could be this strong, nothing like this had ever happened when she was with Harry.

"Where have you been?" Ginny asked.

Hermione was snapped back to reality, but her heart still kept the same pace. "What? Oh I was just writing Harry, I finally got a letter from him today." She smiled.

Ron looked up at the mention of Harry, he had gotten a letter as well, just some Christmas wishes and an update on the cure for his headaches, which wasn't going well. "Shall we start? I'm pretty tired." Ron really did want to get this over with as soon as possible. He found it become increasingly more difficult to be around Hermione without jumping her, the only thing holding back at this point was Harry but it was enough for now. He didn't want to risk both friendships just because he couldn't keep his hormones in check.

"erm, Yeah. Here Ginny" Hermione started it off, she had gotten Ginny a person spell book. Ron had inwardly scoffed to himself when he saw it.

Everyone had exchanged gifts within twenty minutes. Ron had received some sort of test potion from his brothers, they weren't even sure what it did but they promised it wasn't bad. All that was left was the exchange between Hermione and Ron, it took a knowing look from Ginny to her eldest brothers before the three excused themselves for the evening.

Ron silently cursed his family, he knew what they were doing and he wasn't ready for it. "Where are you guys going there are still a few gifts left" he pleaded for them to stay.

Ginny was already making her exit before she turned around "Nothing for me" she grinned and made her full exit. His brothers didn't even respond.

Hermione had noticed the abrupt departure but didn't think much of it, she knew it made her heart beat even quicker now that they were alone but Ron would never have to know that.

"Here" Hermione handed Ron a simply wrapped gift.

"Thanks" He smiled and opened up the gift that revealed a new Chudley Cannons sweater. "Oh it's great, thank you" he put it on over his t-shirt. "Perfect" he continued to smile. He reached down to his feet and grabbed a small box to hand to Hermione.

"It's nothing special but I liked it"

"I'm sure I'll like it too" she took the box from his hands, their fingers grazed as she did this and they both froze up for a moment. While the touch didn't resemble the shock they had experience nearly a week ago it wasn't something to shy away from.

They both shifted their gaze from their hands to each others' eyes. It took all of Ron's strength to resist pulling her to him but he was finally able to release his grip on the gift and separate himself from Hermione's touch. His face was turning different shades of red.

Hermione brought the gift to her lap and tried to calmly catch her breath, "Wonder what it is?" she joked as she shook the present next to her ear. She was doing everything in her power to keep her composure. She opened the present to reveal a picture frame with a picture of her and Ron from 2nd year, his arm was slung over her shoulder and hers was around his waste, they both had young hand happy smiles on their faces. She touched the faces in the picture with her fingertips.

"We were so happy" she said still focused on the picture.

"Do you like it, I wasn't sure. I was going to give a different one but…"

"No no, I love it." She smiled and finally looked at him. "I wish it was still like this" she laughed.

Ron shifted on the couch. "Me too".

All of the sudden the couch seemed much smaller to Hermione, without thinking she blurted out "What about Harry's present" she said pointing to the floor.

Ron jumped a little as he was brought back down to reality yet again, she was with Harry, he shouldn't be thinking about mounting her on the couch when she is thinking about Harry and his present for her.

"Oh right, I need to unlock for you don't I" he sighed out.

Hermione put her hand to her forehead as Ron leaned forward to work on the present. Her skin was hot to the touch. She hated herself for bringing up Harry when they we obviously sharing some type of moment.

"Here I think I got it" Ron handed her Harry's present. This time avoiding any possible contact.

"I'll leave you to it" he smiled and stood up and looked down at her. "Happy Christmas Hermione" his blue eyes nearly tearing up.

Hermione looked up with both presents in her lap, she saw the look in Ron's eyes and her heart practically broke at the sight. She could see hurt in his eyes, she it killed her to think that she could be the one causing it.

Her silence seemed to urge him to walk away, Hermione hung her head. "Happy Christmas Ron" she said quietly but loud enough for him to hear.

He paused for a moment and turned back towards where Hermione was sitting. "I really do, just so you know'

This cause Hermione to turn around and face him, before she could ask what he was talking about he continued. "I really do wish we were that happy still" he gave a sympathetic look and quickly made for the exit to the boys rooms.

Hermione was speechless, all her mind wanted to do was call out for him, to make him stop so she could say she felt the exact same way. But the words didn't come out, her eyes merely watered as she turned back around and looked down at Harry's still wrapped present.

**The next chapter is already underway and almost complete but I figured I'd post some build up to it. Thanks for the feedback, both Ron and Hermione are struggling with what they should do about Harry because they can't just betray him. At least not yet, but ohhhh how they want to. Reviews puhlease.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: same 'ole **

Hermione laid wide awake in her bed most of the night weighing the pros and cons of doing what she really wanted to do, be with Ron. The pros drastically outweighed the cons, the only one being ruining the friendship that she had with Harry. At this point she knew that it was over between the two of them she couldn't possibly have these feelings for someone else and stay with him. She thought momentarily about writing him a letter but decided he deserved better and was already thinking of ways to break the news to him when he got back in just over a week.

She finally got herself out of bed and cleaned up after almost 4 hours of staring at her ceiling just thinking. She needed to think about something else for a change so she made a b-line for the library where she knew that she would most likely not have to see or converse with anyone for a while. She gave one last glance at the picture Ron gave her the night before that she had placed next to her bed before leaving.

**

Ron had just gotten back from a quick Quidditch practice with his sister, it was still far too cold to enjoy his favorite sport but it was worth the try and he had needed something to do. He plopped himself down on the couch in the common room and was almost immediately flooded with the memory of the touch from the night before. He could not shake this girl for the life of him. He glanced over to where she had been sitting, Harry's present remained wrapped on the cushion.

He picked it up and seriously thought about peeking to see what he got her but decided against it, he figured Hermione had just accidentally left it behind. He was still staring at the present in his hands when Ginny entered the room.

"Whose present?" she asked as she sat down on the couch with her brother.

"It's Hermione's… from Harry." He gave a meek smile.

"Oh."

"Will you give it to her, she left it down here last night" he said handing it out for Ginny to take.

Ginny put her hands up in a form of protest. "Absolutely not."

"Yeah, I guess I should have seen that coming" he brought the present back to his lap and continued to stare at it.

"Her books and everything are gone, she most likely in the library if you want to give it to her yourself." Ginny offered up.

"Yeah right." He didn't look at her. Though his reaction didn't show it he actually thought it wasn't the worst idea his sister had ever come up with. It might seem a little obvious and maybe even a little desperate but it was an excuse to see Hermione, which he had been dying to do since he left her the night before.

"ok well, I'm going to go get some lunch. Please do something while I'm gone, anything" Ginny said as she got up and left.

Ron nodded his head to her absently. It took him nearly twenty minutes to get up the courage to make his way to the library in search of Hermione. When he finally reached the entrance to the library it took him another five minutes to actually enter. He was kicking himself for being such a wimp about all of this, after all he was just bringing her something he thought she would want. There was no harm in that right?

He searched through the stacks, he had a pretty good idea where she was but he decided to play dumb for his own sake. When he eventually came upon the table she was studying at he stopped and looked at her. He smiled to himself, her head was almost completely buried in some ancient book and she was fidgeting with a pencil by twirling it around in her fingers.

He sighed and knew he couldn't just stand there and stare at her from afar. He took a few steps forward before speaking up.

"I thought I'd find you here" he said with a grin on his face. He had to admit he was pretty good at hiding feelings when he really tried.

Hermione was slightly startled at the sound of anyone's voice but when she turned to see it was Ron who was speaking she couldn't hold back a little smile. The smile faded quickly though when she saw what was in his hands. Ron saw her eye the present.

"Oh yeah, the reason I came. Here, you left it on the couch and I didn't just want to leave it there" he lied as he walked up to the table and handed it to her for the second time. He sat on the edge of the table next to Hermione facing her. He hadn't thought about what he would say past giving her the present so things were getting awkward.

Hermione realized she hadn't said anything since Ron had interrupted her study session. It probably had only been fifteen seconds but it seemed like much longer. "Thanks… I forgot about it." She finally said before setting it on the table in front of her.

"Aren't you going to open it?" Ron asked.

That was the last thing Hermione wanted to do. "Yeah, I'll do it later." She looked at Ron was staring at his feet thinking of something to say next.

Hermione hated this, talking always came easy to them she could tell something had to be said. "Did you really just come by to bring me the present?" she asked hoping to get an honest answer out of him, or at least more than one word.

Ron wasn't expecting that question but he wasn't entirely mad it had come up. His palms started sweating at the idea that he might just come clean about everything, luckily his brain kicked in at the last second. "What do you mean?" he choked out.

This was going to be harder than Hermione had thought, she knew he was dense but she had to think he knew what she was getting at. "I don't know, I just didn't expect to come all the way to library for any reason let alone that one" she made sure to laugh a little at the end to not sound rude.

"Oh, yeah well there isn't much else to do around here I guess."

That's not what Hermione had wanted to hear. She guess she was just out of luck when it came to this boy, she hadn't changed her mind about ending it with Harry though, she'd be pining over Ron silently than suffering with Harry publicly. She sighed out loud and stood up to gather her things, Ron had pretty much ruined her studious atmosphere

Ron stood up so she could reach the rest of her books that were behind him. He couldn't let another interaction end horribly. "Where are you going?" he asked.

She looked at him. "I don't know, I just really feel like studying anymore" she glanced at him.

"What!? Hermione Granger doesn't want to study anymore? I'd never thought I'd see the say. I can die happy now" he attempted to joke. Hermione barely cracked a smile.

"Tough crowd." He waited for any type of response. "Hermione what wrong? Did I say something stupid?" Hermione stopped what she was doing and placed both of her on the table in front of her and looked in between them.

Ron reached out and lightly grabbed her arm " 'Mione, say something" .

The touch got Hermione's attention, she didn't move but she turned her head at looked at Ron quickly. Their eyes met and she could see the worried look coming from wrong. He removed his hand from her arm and placed it on the top of her hand that was resting on the table. "I don't know what I did but I'm sorry if it upset you. I didn't mean to"

Hermione screamed on the inside, he didn't upset her, not even close, it was just too hard to be around him now. "You didn't do anything, it's just me. I have a lot going through my head right now. I don't know." She looked down at his hand that was on hers. She didn't want him to ever move it. But he did once he saw her looking at it.

"I wish you would talk to me like you used to before…" he stopped himself before he said what he didn't want to bring up.

But Hermione knew what he was going to say "before Harry right" she finished the thought for him.

He just nodded his head.

"I didn't mean for it to be like this Ron, I never wanted to hurt our friendship." She confessed.

Ron scoffed at the word friendship, she couldn't really think that was all he wanted. " I don't think this…" he pointed back and forth between the two of them "has anything to do with Harry". He had finally acknowledged that something was going on between them and that didn't escape Hermione.

"Ron" she spoke softly, almost apologetically. She didn't know what to say, he had come as close as she thought possible to admitting that there was something more than a friendship hiding between them. Her heart was almost beating out of her chest, before she knew it she had taken a step closer to him closing the gap between them.

Ron's breathe got caught in his throat with the new closeness. He was frozen as Hermione placed a soft hand on his chest and reach up on her tip toes bringing their lips within inches. They gazed into each others eyes for a moment until Ron gently cupped her face, he ran his thumb along her cheek before closing his eyes and pressing his lips against hers.

He almost pulled away when Hermione didn't respond but he felt the hand that was on his chest slowly move to the nape of his neck and pull him closer. She responded in full force, the kiss was gentle as their lips moved against each other. Ron let his tongue slide into her mouth and explore tentatively, Hermione reacted accordingly by pulling him even closer to her body.

Ron couldn't believe that this was actually happening, when he had entered the library ten minutes earlier he would never have guess he would end up kissing Hermione, something he had thought about many times before but never really thought it was occur. He couldn't get enough.

Hermione leaned into the kiss as much as she could, the feeling of Ron's lips on her was overwhelming. It was finally happening. He was a much better kisser than Harry too. HARRY! Her mind finally caught up with her body and reluctantly pulled away from Ron's lips. Both of them were breathing heavily.

She didn't want to stop but she knew she had too, she had to end things with Harry before things went any further with Ron. Surely Ron would understand that. She gave him one last lingering kiss before resting her forehead on his for a moment. Ron's hands left her face as he was scared he had pushed his luck. He searched her expression for some sort of sign.

"We can't do this. Not right now" Were her first words. Ron immediately took a step back, hurt filling his expression.

"No. That's not what I meant" she reached out for his hands but he was just out of reach.

"What then?" He finally responded.

Hermione's shoulders sank. "It's Harry. We can't do this to him."

Ron shook his head, he agreed but wished he didn't. "I'm sorry. I know you chose him. I shouldn't have…" He looked to the floor before planning his exit. "It won't happen again." He said whole heartedly thinking that Hermione still wanted to be with Harry and what had just happened was just a moment of weakness on both their parts.

Before Hermione could process what Ron was saying he was already halfway down the isle.

Hermione was more annoyed than anything, he really was dense. "Ron!" she called out but he didn't turn. She cursed herself before quickly grabbing her things to go after him.

**I had conflicting feelings about this, many of you had expressed your distaste for Ron and Hermione going behind Harry's back but it's realllly hard to keep them apart even if H/Hr are still unfortunately" together". Thanks for the reviews and more to come SOOOOON. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO UPDATE!**

Ron was on a mission to get as far away from Hermione as possible, it's not that he wanted to, he just had to. After the kiss they had shared he had felt like it was too good to be true and his fears proved to be spot on when she uttered the words "We Can't" and "Harry". He knew there were other words that she had spoken but those were the only ones he heard.

He could vaguely hear noises coming from behind him, he figured that it was Hermione but he couldn't face her. Not after what had just happened. He moved as quickly as he could which he knew was fast enough to lose Hermione at least for the time being. He ducked into an empty class room to gather his thoughts.

Hermione was forced to give up her pursuit before she was even able to leave the library, she was near tears as she watched Ron disappear. She dropped her books and leaned up against a nearby bookshelf, she slowly sank down into a crouching position. She couldn't believe their first kiss had ended like this. She shook her head, she had waited years for something to happen between her and Ron and she wanted to kick herself from even mentioning Harry. She was always so confident, she wasn't big on showing weakness and it always seemed that Ron brought it out of her. He was the only person that could literally bring her to her knees in tears and at the same time be the one she always sought comfort in.

Harry was her best friend but she had to admit to herself when she had a problem she rarely thought about going to him with it first, Ron was always the first to come to mind. It remained true now, she was miserable just thinking about how badly things had just gone and all she wanted to do was be with him. After a good five minutes of throwing herself a pity party Hermione finally stood up and gathered her things, she needed to get some air and clear her head before facing Ron again. She took the longest route possible to get back to the common room and when she entered she was relieved to find it empty, she climbed the staircase to the girls dorms and collapsed on her bed when she finally reached her room. It was only noon and she already felt exhausted.

**

Ron finally emerged from the empty class room after calming down. His mind was racing as it had been doing a lot lately, especially when it came to matters of Hermione. The kissed they had shared just kept running through his mind, he knew he couldn't let it be their last but he couldn't help but feel guilty about putting Hermione in a situation that would hurt Harry.

He shook his head trying to push out the rationalization that Harry had hurt him but going for Hermione in the first place. He had to be fair, Ron had never specifically said he liked Hermione but he had a hard time believing that Harry wasn't aware. And now after this kiss there would be no way he could hide his feelings if had to continue seeing Harry and Hermione together in any capacity but friends.

He had to do something but had no idea what. He couldn't lose Hermione, but he couldn't be "just friends" with her any longer. As Ron roamed the empty halls of Hogwarts he tried to come up with something to say to Hermione the next time her saw her. He wanted to tell her that he was angry she chose Harry, that she should have chosen him. He wanted to pull her close and show just how badly he wanted her to choose and it killed him because he knew he couldn't. He screamed to himself silently. If he had to think about this much longer he was going to lose it.

He finally made his way back to the common room and upon entering saw his brothers tinkering with something on the table. They both looked up "You look like hell" they said in unison.

Ron just nodded and chose not to comment. He walked over to what his brothers were sitting in front of. "What are you working on" Ron asked hoping it was something he could be involved in, he needed to be distracted for a little while.

Fred and George looked at each other and nodded once knowing what each other were thinking. "Yeah mate, sit down"

"Were not really working on anything, but he did get our hands on some firewhiskey" Fred said as he slid a crystal flask in Ron's direction.

Ron though seriously about drinking all of it down in one gulp but at the last second he chose not to. Instead he held the clear flask in his hands and gazed down at the amber fluid.

"Where did you get this?" he finally asked.

Fred and George both shrugged their shoulders "Found it"

Ron raised his eyebrows, his brothers were acting weird. He took the cap of and smelled the liquid, it smelled just fine.

"Why do I feel like this isn't firewhiskey?" Ron asked of his suspicion.

"It is, we just don't want to be the first to taste it. After all we FOUND IT, who knows what could be wrong with it" George confessed.

"Well where did you find it?"

"In a dorm mates trunk. We were awfully bored." Fred sounded a little guilty.

Ron looked back and forth to each of his brothers, they weren't usually the ones to shy away from something mysterious if it could be any fun at all. A smirk played across Ron's lips, he was feeling dangerous today. He brought the opened flask up to his lips slowly trying to gauge some sort of reaction but when he saw nothing to be alarmed of he took a large swig. Ron shook his head violently as he choked down the drink, it was firewhiskey alright, he'd forgotten how much it actually burned though. He didn't remember it being this strong, even though he had only had it once before.

He coughed before speaking again "I'm still alive, here your turn" Ron handed the flask to his brother.

"I don't think you could have taken a bigger gulp" Fred commented.

Ron finally got a good look at how much was left in the glass. It wasn't much. His head was already feeling lightheaded, he smiled. "Sorry, I got caught up in the moment" Ron laughed.

"You're already pissed" George exclaimed.

Ron put on a straight face and shook his head adamantly no. He didn't feel drunk, but he did feel really happy for the first time in days which made it impossible for him not to smile. "No, no I'm not. I just think I really needed that." He place both hands on the table and made his move to stand up. "I need to go figure some stuff out, thanks for that" he said pointing at the nearly empty container left sitting on the table. He made his way up the stair of the boys dormitory and shut the door to his empty room. He layed out on his bed and relaxed finally able to take a moment away from obsessing over what he was supposed to about Hermione and finally drifted off to sleep.

**

Hermione had finally finished writing her letter to Harry after what seemed like hours. After she had kissed Ron she knew she had to do something. She just wished it wasn't breaking up with Harry through a letter. After seeing the way Ron had reacted when she pulled away from his kiss, and the way his eyes looked when he apologized, when he thought Hermione had chosen Harry over him, she couldn't let him feel that way anymore.

She knew that breaking up with Harry could potentially ruined any chance a normal friendship between the two of them in the future but to Hermione it was worth it if she could have Ron in return.

_Dearest Harry,_

_I must keep this short as I really don't know what to say. I fear that the moment I was dreading finally has arrived. I'm sorry that it has to happen like this but I think it would be best for both of us if we ended our romantic relationship. I'm so sorry and I hope to get the opportunity to explain myself when you return. Please enjoy the rest of your trip._

_All my best,_

_Hermione_

As soon as she finished her tenth draft of the letter she finally sent it off, feeling both relief and guilt. She had to commend herself however, the letter she sent was far better than her first one that simply read "_Dear Harry, It's over. Sorry. ~Hermione". _ It was how she really felt but knew she owed Harry a little more than that.

**

When Ron came too from his whiskey induced nap he finally felt he had the nerve to find Hermione and tell her how he felt. He sat up and rubbed his eyes and looked around his dimly lit room. It was then he realized that his brothers has obviously put something in the firewhiskey and used him as their guinea pig. There was no way the confidence to find Hermione and tell her everything came from within him all by itself, out of nowhere. He cursed his brothers for using magic on him, but he still felt the urge to seek out Hermione. Maybe something good could come from it all, he might as well try.

He got in a quick shower and wardrobe change before heading back down the common room, he was immediately met with the sight of Hermione reading a book on the couch by the fire. There were a few other students scattered about but Ron couldn't keep his eyes of Hermione. He took a few steps forward and could already feel the courage he had only minutes ago dwindling. Fred and George needed to work on their potions a little more Ron thought to himself.

Slowly he made his way to the other end of the couch and Hermione looked up to meet his gaze. He couldn't read her expression and desperately wished that he could. Hermione shut her book softly.

"Hey" she smiled meekly. When Hermione saw Ron standing there, just looking at her dumbfounded she was caught off guard. She knew they were going to have to face each other but she had hoped she would have gotten a little more time to practice what she was going to say.

"Hey" Ron grinned slightly and proceeded to pick at the arm of the couch. He gazed had turned towards the fireplace.

"listen ron…" Hermione started to break the awkward silence only to be interrupted.

"Will you come talk with me?" he asked. Hermione's head shot to look at him, he looked around the room. "Just somewhere not as crowded" he gestured.

Hermione nodded and mumbled "yes".

**Sorry for making all the readers wait so long for an update. I promise to have many more throughout the next few days into next week. Thanks for all the reviews. Everything is welcome, hope you enjoy! **


	10. Chapter 10

**And here we goooo….**

Hermione stood up and left her book on the couch as she turned and started walking towards the door. She could feel her heart beating faster as she could feel Ron catching up to her from the other side of the couch. They reached the door and exited at the same time. They both kept walking in silence until they reached a large empty hall, they could hear noise coming from the various rooms along it, but they had some privacy.

Ron was the first to speak. Calling on the last ounces of courage he had left in his body. He stopped dead in his tracks. "Why did you choose him?" he blurted out. He had been thinking about it for months and frankly regretted that this was the way the conversation had to start but it was the one thing he couldn't come up with an excuse for in his own head. He needed to know the answer.

Hermione heard the words and froze as well. She turned to face Ron.

"What?" she trembled. She couldn't believe that this is what he wanted to talk about, she was taken a back and didn't know how to respond.

Ron shifted his weight, he knew she heard him. "Oh come on, you're a smart girl 'Mione, don't play dumb with me. Why did you choose him?!" he said with a little more anger in his voice than he intended but couldn't take it back now.

"I didn't choose anything, Ron. It's not like there were options to 'choose' from!" she retorted. The anger crept in her voice as well, she didn't do well with people yelling at her. Especially Ron and especially about her love life, she all of sudden felt the need to defend her relationship with Harry even though all she wanted was to be with Ron.

"I don't believe you" he stared at her cooly.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me Hermione, why can't you just give me a straight answer. You chose him, you're with him. There has always been another option the whole time, you've just ignored it!" This wasn't going exactly how he wanted it to, but it felt good to get finally get some things out in the open.

"You have no idea what you're talking about." Hermione shot back, if the other option he was referring to was him he sure did a hell of a job of showing it.

Ron groaned "Care to enlighten men?" he looked past her.

Hermione sighed. "I didn't know this is what you wanted to talk about" she crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall staring at the ground she felt defeated. She wasn't prepared for this conversation at all, she thought she was but she was obviously lying to herself.

"What else would I want to talk about?" Ron asked confused and a little but angry.

"I don't know. Us!?" she answered back searching his eyes for something, anything.

Ron gasped aloud. "Us!? There is no us! You're with Harry, there can't be an Us. Remember!" Ron shouted. He saw the hurt in Hermione's eyes and immediately wished he could take the words back, but knew someone had to say it. "We kissed! And YOU pulled away, not me." He yelled while pointing fingers at the both of them.

"Ron stop it! You're just saying this to hurt me. Just Stop!" She came off the wall and stood just feet in front of him.

"I'm not trying to hurt you Hermione. Trust me you're the one who is killing me!" Ron had lost all conscious thought and was responding on pure emotion at this point.

Hermione opened her mouth to say something but no words escaped, so Ron continued.

"You don't know the type of pain I've had to deal with! Do you think it is easy to see you with Harry, to see you two kiss! " he frantically ran his hands through his shaggy hair trying to release some aggression without yelling anything else he would undoubtedly regret.

Hermione heard the words that were coming out of Ron's mouth but didn't want to. She didn't want to hear about the pain she had caused him, she had always wondered how he felt about the whole situation but didn't think it would be like that.

Ron had calmed down enough to ask her yet again "Why him?" his voice started to break.

Hermione had remained silent long enough, she listened to him yell, listened to him blame her for his pain. And while she felt bad she wasn't the only guilty one standing in this hallway. "How come I had to be the one to choose?" she paused. "Why couldn't you choose!? Why didn't YOU choose ME!?" she yelled as the tears welled up.

Ron looked at her shocked. Any thought that was in the back of his mind about Hermione sharing the feelings he had for her had always just been a thought. Now Hermione was standing in front of him asking him why it was her fault. She was right. He should have made his feelings known, but he didn't. Instead he just stood and watched slip away and then preceeded to throw himself pity parties.

"You're right. I…I'm sorry" They were the quietest words he'd spoken.

Hermione wiped a tear from her eye and Ron had to use all of his strength to not pull her close and comfort her, now was not the time.

Hermione looked away from Ron. "I broke up with him." She stated.

"What?" He snapped out of his thoughts.

"I wrote him a letter… after we…" she sighed and faced him "after we kissed".

Ron just looked at her. "I pulled away earlier because I couldn't do that to Harry. Not because I want to be with him Ron. You should know that by now. And I didn't want to end it in a letter either, but I did. I did because I want to be with you, not Harry. Why can't you see that?" She was shaking now and the tears were threatening to flow freely if Ron didn't say something quick.

Ron couldn't believe what he was hearing, she just said the exact words he had wanted her to say to him for years and he couldn't find the words to express how it made him feel.

It took him two quick strides to close the gap between them and cup her face with his hands, he pulled he to him and looked her in the eyes, hoping that his eyes would say all he wanted her to know. It was only a few seconds of silence before Ron brought his lips down to Hermione's for the second time that day only this time no one was going to be pulling away. It was the only thing he could think to do at the moment, it was the only thing he wanted.

This kiss wasn't like their first kiss which was soft and hesitant, this kiss was gentle but passionate. One of his hands moved to rest on Hermione's hip while the other cupped her face. Hermione could feel the tears flowing down her cheeks as she kissed him back. She reached up on her top-toes as her hands hugged his sides softly. Ron leaned them against the nearest wall and used his tongue to part her lips. She of course granted him access and the two continued like that for what seemed like hours but it was mere seconds.

Ron sucked lightly on Hermione's bottom lip before finally breaking the kiss to catch their breath. Ron stood up straight and brought the hand from her hip up to join his other hand in cupping her face again. Hermione's eyes were still closed as Ron wiped the remaining tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. He placed a single kiss on her forehead.

"Hermione" he whispered.

Hermione opened her eyes to see Ron's bright blue ones looking into hers. She didn't know what this meant for them but she knew for a fact there was nowhere in the world that she would rather have been than standing there in Ron's arms at that exact moment.

"This is me" he placed a kiss on her lips before speaking again "choosing you" he kissed her again and lingered there for a moment before pulling away.

Hermione smiled. "About time". And a new set of tears formed, but this time they weren't tears of sadness.

**Told you I would update soon, more to come over the weekend. I get more inspired with more reviews… hint hint. Haha just joking, kinda. Hope you liked it.**


	11. Chapter 11

**More.**

Ron had been waiting his whole post-pubescent life to have Hermione in his arms, what was even better is what she was doing in his arms. After they had exchanged the "about time" agreement Ron had a very hard time not smiling, Hermione loved it when he smiled and noted that it had been weeks seen she'd seen him smile a genuine smile like the one she was looking at right now. She raised her self back on her tip-toes and kissed him again, this time slower than before. She didn't want to rush anything she wanted to savor every moment and Ron seemed more than happy to oblige.

For the next five minutes that exchanged lingered kisses littered with breaks to smile at each other, only then to kiss once more. It wasn't until a group of 3rd years entered the hall that Ron and Hermione finally break all contact. The noise had startled Ron causing him to take a step back, he didn't recognize who was in the hall at first and new that if it was anyone of authority and they had spotted the two of them doing what they were doing it would be trouble.

Once Hermione saw the group of girls walking past she couldn't help but turn a bright shade of red. They looked at Ron then immediately glanced towards Hermione, they're expressions seemed more that of admirers than of judging. After all Ron was a 6th year prefect and not at all bad looking if you asked Hermione, a sense of pride suddenly washed over her. She stepped forward stood by Ron who was silent as the audience past.

"Looks like you have a little fan club" Hermione whispered with her own admiring smile.

Ron looked down at her then back to the girls that were nearly at the end of the hall now. "Looks like you have some competition" he teased and turned to face her, his cheeks were flushed as well but he was pretty sure it had nothing to do with the recent visitors and more to do with what was going on before they visited.

"what competition?" she smiled and kissed him once more before finally pulling back for good. As much as she loved there new found closeness it couldn't get too out of hand, it had only been fifteen minutes for merlin's sake.

Ron just continued to smile and hugged Hermione to his side as they began the walk down the hall together as a couple for the first time.

*****

It had been a week since their confrontation in the hallway and Ron and Hermione had been practically inseparable, at least when no one was around. They had decided in the beginning that they would make a concerted effort to not flaunt their new found happiness in front of anyone as to spare Harry any gossip when he returned. It was the least they could do. They spent a lot of time doing all the things they used to do, they talked and joked and enjoyed each others' company thoroughly. Ginny could tell something was obviously up but decided against confronting them as she knew she would learn eventually.

They had found time to sneak away for some private time of course. It was usually after dinner when most of the remaining students had retired to their common rooms when Ron and Hermione would slip into an empty classroom or dark corner to practice the physical part of their relationship.

They had done this every night for the past week but both seemed completely content to keep it as innocent as making out in a classroom could be. Only once on the third night had Ron tried to take just a baby step further by slipping his hand coyly under the hem of Hermione's blouse, at first there was no resistance but as soon as he started to inch his hand further up Hermione pulled away.

Breathless and flushed Hermione apologized. "I..I'm sorry. I just…" she looked away.

"Hey," he tilted her chin back towards him "you don't have to be sorry for anything." He gave her a smile.

Hermione knew he meant it but she still felt bad for not being able to allow Ron to go any further. She hated herself for that, she thought it was ridiculous of her that only three weeks earlier she was praying for Harry to make a move and he never did and now she had the love of her life simply touch her bare skin and she couldn't handle it. Deep down she wanted to think that she knew Harry never would have done anything which was why she tempted him, deep down she knew it wasn't real. But THIS was very real and she didn't trust herself with Ron, she wanted to be ready to go further but she wasn't, she hoped he could just wait a little longer.

She exhaled "it's not that, I.. don't… I don't know" she stammered out. She wiped her lips as she was deep in thought onto how to further explain.

"Hermione, I've waited four years just to be able to call you my girlfriend. This is nothing, we won't do anything before you are ready" he explained as he kissed her forehead.

He meant it with all his heart, he never wanted to do anything to make Hermione uncomfortable. Of course is growing erection highly disagreed with him but he knew he could control himself under these circumstances very easily.

Hermione smiled a weak smile, he had the ability to turn her into a blubbering fool which just a few choice words. It drove her crazy, but there were worse things in the world. "Thank you" was her response before kissing him deeply once last time before they retreated back to Gryffindor for the night.

Ron stayed true to his word, every night since he had kept his lips above her shoulders and his hands outside her clothing and it seemed to work for both of them for the time being.

***

It was the morning before Harry was due to return and Hermione still had gotten no response to her break-up letter. She wondered if he was waiting to confront her when he got back or if he just accepted it and realized what had happened. She had just returned from lunch with Ron and the rest of the Weasley clan when she noticed a letter on her desk, she went and picked it up.

On the front of the letter was a big red bold stamp that read "Return to Sender". Upon further inspection she realized it was the letter she had written before her and Ron got together. She turned it around to look for any signs of it being opened, nothing.

_Shite._

She thought, he didn't even get the most important letter she had ever sent to him. Now when Harry returned in the morning he would no doubt want to see his girlfriend, since technically they were now still together. She already dreaded telling Ron, her mind raced trying to think through the scenario and how to let Harry down quickly but easy.

She was still staring at the letter when Ginny entered her room. Hermione stuffed the letter in her desk drawer and greeted her friend.

"Hi Ginny!" she feigned excitement in hopes to disguise what was going on in her head.

"Hi!" Ginny replied back in half-sarcasm, confused as to the extremely warm greeting.

"What can I do for you?" Hermione asked nicely.

Ginny looked at her friend suspiciously but pushed it aside, she did have one question to ask.

"So how long have you and Ron been snogging behind our backs?" She accused, but the smile on her face as she did it had no traces of anger. She looked very approving in fact.

Hermione stumbled over her words. "Uh… um…" she frantically tried to come up with something clever but couldn't, she sighed. "is it that obvious?" Hermione all but confessed.

Ginny smiled "about as obvious as the hickey he had on his neck today at lunch" she laughed.

Hermione's mouth dropped and her cheeks flushed. "Oh my" the worry in her voice evident.

"Don't worry Hermione, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who has noticed."

Hermione breathed a little sigh of relief.

"Soooo, how long?" Ginny continued to prod.

Hermione furrowed her brow for a moment but knew Ginny would have found out eventually and decided it would be nice to have a girl to discuss the whole situation with. Even if that girl was the little sister of the boy in question.

"About a week" she admitted.

Ginny nodded. "That makes sense. I heard some 3rd year girls gushing about something. I just didn't have any proof"

"Ahh, it just keeps getting better" Hermione threw her arms up emphatically.

Ginny cleared her throat. "What about Harry?" clearly asking for herself more than for Hermione's or Harry's sake but Hermione didn't have to know that.

Hermione shook her head. "I don't know what I was thinking Gin. I knew it would never work, but I did it anyway and now I'm afraid I've ruined everything." Hermione gushed. She wasn't really able to talk about this with Ron because she just didn't want to bring both of them down with the topic of her dating Harry. She knew Ron was sensitive to it. It would feel good to finally get some of it off her chest.

"You haven't ruined anything Hermione. I'm sure Harry will understand, I mean we've all know that you and Ron would end up together at some point. I'm sure he saw it coming as well." Ginny tried to comfort her friend.

"Why do I feel like I was the last one to know in the Ron department?" Hermione asked.

"Because you're stubborn, and he was always a git when it came to you" Ginny stated bluntly.

"I suppose your right." Hermione played with her nails. "Harry comes back tomorrow" she stated.

"Yeah he wrote me a letter from Brussels and few days ago. It sounds like he had fun" Ginny added, completely oblivious to Hermione's lack of correspondence from him.

This did not go unnoticed by Hermione. He had written Ginny and not me? Why was my letter returned? She was all of a sudden very confused.

"He wrote you from Brussels?"

Ginny realized that she probably had just divulged far too much information. Her and Harry and been writing all break, she received a new letter almost every other day. She never thought that Hermione hadn't been receiving the same amount. She felt both guilty and happy at the same time.

"Yeah I sent him a Christmas card and he returned the favor I guess." Ginny lied.

Hermione wasn't sure if she fully believed it but she had no reason not to, she dropped the issue for the time being. She did however keep it in the back of her mind as ammo if there was trouble the next day over the impending break up.

**Thank you for the reviews. MORE MORE MORE coming soon, glad you're enjoying it. Don't worry it'll get juicier soon, I promise.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: Kind of not mine.**

Ron and Hermione had cut their nightly ritual short and were now sitting on the couch in the common room. Surprisingly it was Ron who decided to bring them back to Gryffindor earlier than usual, he could tell Hermione's head was somewhere else. Usually Hermione was enthusiastic during their little make-out sessions but tonight Ron could tell she was doing it more for him then for the both of them.

It was getting pretty late as they had been sitting in the common room in exchanging comfortable small talk for about an hour now. Ron just liked her company, something he hadn't been able to enjoy to himself for a very long time and now had his girl resting against him with his arm around her, to say he was content would be an understatement.

He felt Hermione shift and was immediately at a loss once the heat from her left his side. He could tell something more was on her mind.

It was true, Hermione had been worried all day about what would happen when Harry returned the next day. She knew she had made the right choice in Ron, there was no doubt in her mind about that. But she did fear she would lose a close friend over all of this and the return of that letter meant Harry would be coming back without warning of her and Ron and she felt that could prove to be a problem. She sighed and sat up, she was mentally exhausted.

Ron's arm remained around as he scooted forward with her. "Something wrong?"

Hermione looked at him and forced out a smile before turning her gaze back to the fireplace. "I'm worried about tomorrow" she admitted. Ron knew this was about Harry, he slowly removed his arm and clasped his hands in front of him. Hermione sensed that he took it the wrong way.

"I got the letter I sent him saying that we were over back today. It said return to sender and it hadn't been opened" she continued her frustration showing.

Ron was processing all of this information as she was giving it to him. He leaned back into the couch. "So he doesn't know anything then. You're technically still together?" he asked, he didn't mean to sound so accusing but it was how Hermione seemed to perceive it.

"Technically yes. But Ron you know it's not like that." She turned to face him and placed a hand on his. "I'm just worried that him coming back to…US… could ruin all of our friendships. I just don't want that and I know you don't either. "

Ron looked up "I know that. I don't want anyone to get hurt either. But I want you to be with me Hermione, and I don't know… I guess just thinking about you two together like you were still bothers me. I know you don't feel like that for him but I just can't shake the idea that you might have in the past" Ron admitted. He was surprised how easily that confession had come out, he was happy that he had finally told her and hoped she would understand.

Hermione had secretly already know that Ron felt this way but to hear him say it made all too real. "I don't think I've ever felt this way about anyone Ron. Please don't compare yourself to Harry, you're are so much more to me than that."

"Do you want me to talk to him with you tomorrow?"

Hermione considered it for a moment, having Ron there would make things a lot easier but Harry might feel like he's ambushed and that could more damaging than helpful.

"I wish you could but it might be best if me and him just talk first. I'm sure you two will have to have your own talk anyway" she offered.

Ron shook his head he knew she was right but he had this sinking feeling in his stomach that Harry might be able to talk her into changing her mind. He knew the idea was far fetched but then again he never pictured being able to be with Hermione himself, anything was possible at this point.

"Just tell me we'll be fine" he looked at her with his bright blue eyes pleading with her, his hand lightly squeezing hers.

Hermione's heart nearly broke at the words. Of course they would be fine, they had been through far too much not end up together, right? Instead of responding with words Hermione smiled her bewitching smile and leaned in for a reassuring kiss.

What was meant to be an innocent brief kiss quickly turned to something more though as Ron ran his hand through Hermione's hair pulling her deeper into the kiss. Hermione felt Ron's tongue enter her mouth and the worry of the following day began to fade away. His lips were soft and the way he kissed her made her feel like she was all he needed, she hoped the way she responded made him feel the same way.

Hermione used her right hand to brace herself against the couch as the couple fell deeper into each other. Ron snaked his arm around her waist to pull her closer to him, Hermione shifted to catch herself from crashing into him as his hold on her tightened. Before she knew it she found herself straddling his legs with her knees on either side. At first she was startled by the implications this position could render but with one groan from Ron she was back on his lips eager for more.

It took Ron a moment to realize what was going on but once he did he didn't waste any time. He moved forward and placed a hand on the small of Hermione's back that guided her to slide further forward onto his lap as more room behind him opened up. He ran his free hand up Hermione's jean clad thigh and back down to the crook behind her knee urging her to wrap her legs around him. She did as directed, never leaving his lips.

Hermione had one hand at the nape of Ron's neck that was drawing him as close to her lips as she could manage. Their kisses were growing frantic with passion, their breath was becoming more ragged with every second their actions continued. Ron moved his mouth down to her exposed collarbone eliciting soft moans through her heavy breaths. This drove Ron nearly past the edge of reason, the hand that was previously on the small of her back had found its' way under her sweater and was venturing dangerously north with no protest from Hermione.

Hermione could feel her skin on fire as Ron touched her. When did this happen she thought to herself, just seconds ago they were cuddling on the couch and now they were two steps away from disrobing right there in the common room. Her hips rocked forward unintentionally as she wrapped both her arms around his neck and kissed him on the mouth again. Ron groaned even louder as Hermione rocked against him, if she didn't know what she was doing to him before his moan she sure knew now because as if on cue she rocked back again torturing him.

He pulled away slightly and nipped at her neck "Hermione you're killing me" he rasped.

Hermione heard his words but they didn't register the way they should have, she leaned in a traced kisses down his jaw towards his hear where she whispered. "We should stop" she breathed half heartedly.

"Yeah" was all Ron said before their mouths met again. Both of them knew this was wrong but they couldn't help themselves.

Hermione's hands were now the roaming ones as she let them wander down his back and up his chest over and over as they kissed. Ron's hands had found themselves planted on her hips trying to prevent her movements from causing any more damage to his growing erection. He didn't want anything to happen like this, but it was becoming increasingly harder to restrain himself.

It was mere moments before Ron was about to really put a stop to this whole thing when they both heard someone clear their throat behind them. Hermione's eyes immediately flashed opened to meet Ron's similar lust-filled and startled glance. Hermione nervously looked over Ron's shoulder to see who had just caught them in a very compromising position.

As soon as Hermione made eye contact with the boy standing not more than 5 feet away from the couch she felt as if she had been cursed. She jumped off of Ron's lap and proceeded to straighten out her shirt and hair in the process.

"Harry… you're home early" she said with a grimace on her face trying desperately to catch her breath. She was also willing the blushing red on her face to retreat.

With that Ron was on his feet standing right next to her brushing his hair down from its' wild state and trying subtlety to wipe his lips.

Harry's eyes darted back and from Ron and Hermione. Anger and confusion played across his face, yet he said nothing.

"Harry we can explain" Ron offered, taking a step towards his best friend placing himself in between Hermione and Harry. Harry glared at Ron and took a step back before turning his back on the both of them and retreating up the steps to the boys dormitory. Ron and Hermione could hear the door slam all the way from where they were standing.

Hermione all but collapsed back on the couch with her head in her hands forcing her to hold back the tears in front of Ron. She couldn't have imagined a worse situation for this all to unravel in. She could see everything slipping away, she wanted to be able to tell Harry and ease him into her and Ron in the nicest way possible and now that was completely shot. To top it all off she was sure her reaction to everything that had just happened was not what Ron wanted to see.

Ron hung his head and sat down next to Hermione. "He was going to find out Hermione"

"You've got to be kidding me" she called from her buried face.

"I know your upset 'Mione but we can't change what just happened"

Hermione said nothing as Ron gently rubbed her back to comfort her. He was a little hurt that she was so upset but he can imagine he would be just as angry if he was in her place, or Harry's for that matter.

"Maybe you should just call it a night, a lot has happened." He cleared his throat "I'll try and talk to Harry tonight, I'll try to sort some things out. We can deal with this tomorrow. Together"

Hermione just nodded and made a gesture to stand up, she didn't want to argue not right now. Ron stood up with her and brought her into a hug. She sobbed into his shoulder for a few moments before pulling away. "I just want it to be ok. That's all I want"

Ron wanted to do everything in his power to make that happen, he couldn't bear to see her like this. "I'll fix it. I promise." He kissed her forehead. "Go to bed".

She did as he said and with one kiss on the cheek she exited up the stairs. She was overwhelmed and exhausted, she was at a loss for words and just wanted to escaped it all. She was full of guilt; guilt for hurting Harry the way she did; guilt for not being able to fully commit to Ron, and the list just kept on going. She felt that she was going to have to put a sleeping spell on herself to be able to get any shut eye this evening.

Ron watched as Hermione disappeared from the common room and took a minute to himself before going up to his room to be confronted by Harry. He tried to regain his bearings, a lot had just happened in a very short amount of time. It quickly went from something he was enjoying very much to something he wished would have never happened. He had a small flashback to Hermione straddling him and had to shake the memory free and remember that his best friend had just seen him the passionate throws with his technical girlfriend. He had every right to be angry, but he had to let Ron to explain himself.

He knew one thing though he wasn't going to give Hermione up, he had waited far too long. All he could hope for now was an amicable end to all of this but he knew he had some work to do if it was all going to work out.

**Next chapters up soon. Thanks for the reviews as usual, I enjoy and appreciate each and every one of them. Hope you all are enjoying.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: Not mine not yours. Ya know**

Ron made his way up the staircase to the room that he and Harry shared. He paused outside the door for a moment trying to think of what he was going to say when he entered. He wracked his brain but the only thing he could think of was Hermione. Finally he gave into winging it and proceeded to his bedchamber.

Upon entering he witnessed a rather flustered Harry unpacking his things the muggle way. He things were strewn about on his bed and his trunk lay open with nearly nothing in it. Ron shout the door rather loudly hoping to get Harry's attention. It worked Harry stopped what he was doing and looked at his friend.

Harry glared at Ron for a moment before reaching into his back and throwing a piece of clothing as hard as he could in Ron's direction. The fabric hit Ron in the face and upon grabbing it he realized it was a new Chudley Cannons jersey, he held it in his hands and felt immediately more guilty than he thought he would.

"Harry, I'm sorry you had to find out that way" Ron gutted out, failing to make eye contact. Harry said nothing and continued to make a mess of his unpacking. _Here goes nothing. _Ron thought to himself.

"But I'm not sorry you found out" Ron added bluntly.

This stopped Harry from what he was doing. He couldn't believe what he just heard. He had just caught his best friends, one being his girlfriend, going at it and all Ron had to say was 'I'm not sorry you found out'. He squeezed the jacket that he had in his hand as to prevent himself from lunging at Ron.

"Harry say something."

Harry looked at Ron once more. "I have nothing to say to you, or her." He turned his back and pretended to get busy with his pile of clothes. Harry could feel the anger growing but he couldn't place it.

Ron could tell this was going nowhere fast. He needed to say something. "Ok then it looks like you're going to have to listen" Ron started. "I'm in love with her Harry, I have been for a long time. You knew that and you went after her anyways, so excuse me if I don't feel as guilty as she does right now for what just happened" he accused.

Harry stopped what he was doing and stood up, his back still to Ron. He knew Ron was right, but that didn't change that they both had just betrayed him.

When there was no response from Harry, Ron continued. "She wrote you to tell you that it was over but the letter came back today unopened. We never wanted to hurt you like that."

Still silence but Ron could at least tell that Harry was listening instead of ignoring. "I'm not backing down Harry, you need to know that. I'll fight for her if that's what you want but I still need my best mate".

He heard Harry let out an audible sigh. "I know." Harry finally responded.

Harry thought about what Ron had just said, the more he thought about it the more he realized that the most hurtful thing wasn't that Hermione was cheating on him, it was that she was cheating on him with his best friend. He had felt Hermione slipping away for weeks he knew they weren't going to last much longer, he was just holding on because he didn't want to hurt Hermione.

In fact when he was truly honest with himself it was never Hermione, he had just gone to Hermione because he was scared of the feeling she was forming for Ginny. He felt horrible about that, especially with Ron here declaring his love for the girl that he had basically just used for his own comfort because he knew he could. He still felt like his trust was completely broken but he knew he could point the finger at himself just as easily. The best way to end this conversation before he had to admit to Ron everything he had just realized was to just give up.

"She's all yours Ron" Harry said without turning back around.

"What?" Ron asked genuinely surprised.

"She was always yours."

This time it was Ron that was speechless.

Harry finally turned around to face Ron. "I wish I could explain. Just give me time. I won't stand in your way."

Ron thought about arguing but chose not to, he knew Harry wasn't saying something but at least him and Hermione could be together. Hermione. "Harry, 'Mione is wrecked. She really doesn't want you to be upset with her. If you're still upset with me we can work through that, but I don't think she'll be able to handle you not being able to be friends."

Harry could tell Ron was truly worried about her. "You really love her don't you?" he asked already knowing the answer.

"Head over heels" Ron said with a little bit of blush creeping into his cheeks.

"I'll talk to her" were Harry's last words of the night.

Ron stood for a few minutes hoping that Harry would elaborate on why he didn't even get mad at him. Finally he determined that it would come out when it was supposed to, he also hoped that whatever he said to Hermione tomorrow would be reassuring enough for her to be comfortable with him.

He folded his new jersey and put it away before getting ready for bed. By the time he had closed his curtains Harry had finally finished his unpacking and was reading something off a piece of paper on his own bed.

"Goodnight Harry" he got no response. He really hoped that whatever was on Harry's mind that he would say something soon, he didn't feel right just letting it all go.

****

When Ron woke up the following morning he didn't feel as rested as he had hoped he would. He had slept horribly, he couldn't help but wonder why Harry gave up so easily. He was happy he had Hermione all to himself but he felt like he had to keep his guard up because this whole situation could still blow up.

He rolled out of bed and decided he would head to breakfast, he looked towards Harry's bed it was empty and unmade. It was still pretty early so Ron wondered where he could have wandered off to. He pushed it to the back of his mind though as he headed down to the common room.

The first thing he saw upon entering the room was his bushy haired love sitting on the couch reading a book. As he approached he almost didn't want to disturb her as he was sure this would be as calm as she would be all day.

"Morning"

Hermione was startled by the sudden presence of someone else in the room. She had been sitting there for almost an hour without one person coming or going. She glanced up to see Ron smiling weakly at her.

"Morning" she mirrored back.

Ron could tell she hadn't slept at all, there were bags under her eyes and they were bloodshot as well. "Oh 'Mione… did you get any sleep at all?" Ron asked worriedly as he made his way to sit by her side.

Hermione shook her head. "No, not really" she sighed. "Did you talk to him?" she forced out.

Ron took a deep breath, he wasn't really sure how to word what had happened last night. "Well, yes. " Hermione's eyes shot to his hoping for more information.

"He didn't really want to talk."

"I knew it" she hung her head.

"But he listened. I apologized for the way it all happened, I explained the letter… I told him I wasn't going to give you up" Ron searched Hermione for some sort of reaction. "All I can say is that it didn't seem like WE were what was on his mind."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, but after he threw a shirt at me and listened to what I had to say all he said was 'she was always yours' and 'I'm not going to stand in your way'" Ron shrugged his shoulders. Hearing Harry say that meant a lot to Ron but he wasn't sure the reaction it was gain from Hermione.

"Oh" she ran a hand through her messy hair.

"Hermione…"

"Ron I just need to talk to him, this is all my fault. I shouldn't have asked you to say anything."

Ron's head dropped. He didn't know what he was supposed to do, he knew she would be upset but all he wanted to do was put all of this behind them. He was being selfish and he knew it but he also knew that Harry would come around eventually and just wanted to move on with Hermione.

"This isn't your fault Hermione. But you can't force Harry into doing anything before he's ready, you know that."

"Ron, please. Just let me take care of this. I'll feel a lot better if I could just talk to him and apologize for myself." Hermione blurted out.

"Right… well let me know when you figure that out. Hopefully soon or you'll be out two best friends" Ron reacted. He stood up and started to walk out of the room. He knew he was being a bit dramatic but she was being ridiculous. He knew he wasn't going to give up on her ever but in the heat of the moment the ultimatum sounded like a good idea.

Hermione's eyes widen at the statement Ron had just made, she couldn't believe he was acting like this. She just wanted to cool the air with Harry, why couldn't Ron see that.

"Are you serious right now?!" She stood up and yelled after him.

Ron turned around and waited a moment before responding. "Hermione, I don't know what to do. But you obviously don't want me around when you talk to Harry so don't worry I won't be. Come find me after I guess" he shrugged. It one sentence he had retreated to his old ways of not taking a stand. He turned and exited the room.

"Ron!" she called out but he was already gone. She let out a groan of frustration.

She thought about running after him but knew she wouldn't have anything to say if she caught up to him. No matter what she said she knew she couldn't fully be ok with being with Ron without at least apologizing to Harry herself. It would be fair to Ron or Harry if she just ignored it. Right?

She was still angry as she made her way to take a shower and get ready for the day hoping that she could find Harry and get things straightened out as soon as possible.

**Ok this was basically just a filler chapter to get some things set up and straightened out, hopefully it made sense. More updates in the coming days and more lovin' between Hermione and Ron DON'T WORRY! Haha thank you all for the reviews and as always more are welcome (smiles)**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: j.k.r.**

Hermione entered the Great hall for breakfast, of course the first set of eyes she met were that of Ron's but she couldn't deal with that quite yet. She scanned the room for any sign of Harry and found nothing. She could feel Ron's eyes still watching her waiting for her next move and avoided eye contact as she left the room. As soon as she was in the hallway she tried to think of where she could find him. She started down the hall back towards Gryffindor when she ran into Seamus who had just returned from holiday as well.

"Morning Hermione" he smiled and kept walking not expecting to really get into a conversation with her.

"Seamus Hi!" She reacted a little loudly. She noticed the confused look on his face. "You haven't by chance seen Harry since you've been back have you?" She explained and he looked a lot less confused.

"Oh I just saw him in our room, he was reading something" He offered.

Hermione almost jumped at the information. "Oh! Thank you" She turned and hold to herself back from running down the hall. "Hope you had a good break!" She added as an afterthought even though she was already half way gone.

She made it to the common room in record time and realized she had thought through what she was going to say to him. She knew she wanted to apologize but that was about it. She paced the area in front of the boys staircase for about five minutes contemplating whether or not to go up to his room and talk to him there or wait till he finally came out of hiding. She weighed her options, one the hand she could get in a lot of trouble if for some reason she got caught in the boys dormitory but on the other hand Harry could be up there for hours and she didn't want to risk a run in with Ron without some answers. Finally her urge to just get it over and done with won out and she crossed the threshold and quickly climbed the stairs.

She nearly burst through his door which obviously caught him by surprised as he jumped and drew his wand ready for action. Hermione was stopped stone cold until Harry finally stepped down finally realizing who was standing in front of him.

"Hermione…what?"

Hermione turned to shut the door behind her "I know I shouldn't be here but we have to talk."

Harry shrugged, he knew this was coming. "Yeah you're right, but do you think this is the best place for a talk" He looked around, stopping at Ron's bed then looking back to Hermione.

She hadn't really thought about the fact that this was Ron's room as well, she had been in here once before but that was pre-dating both of them. She had a new wave of guilt hit her for being in here with Harry and not Ron. It took her a second but she shook that thought away, she was here for a reason and she needed to get down to business.

"I don't really think there is an Ideal place for this conversation to be honest"

"Right" he shifted his weight.

There was awkward silence in the room until Hermione finally started it "I never meant for you to find out like that" she said. "I'm sorry. That's all I can say. I thought I had this long speech planned out but in the end all it really comes down to is that I'm sorry Harry" as soon as she finished she tried to get occupied picking at her fingernails waiting for some type of response.

"I'm sorry too Hermione."

Her eyes shot up "What? You didn't do anything wrong Harry." She took a step forward.

"Yeah I did, I've been lying to myself and to you for a long time, and I'm just sorry that you feel any guilt about being with Ron now. It's where you should be, it's where you should have been the whole time." Harry didn't think he would be confessing this to Hermione but in the heat of the moment knew he couldn't lie to her so he thought it best just to get it all out in the open.

"What do you mean you lied?" the hurt in Hermione's voice was evident.

"Well I didn't think I was lying at the time, but after I saw… last night I just realized it." He tried to explain, he could tell Hermione was looking for more. "I wasn't mad Hermione… I'm NOT mad. I was a little hurt that my two best friends would go behind my back, but not entirely surprised…"

"Harry you're not making any sense"

He shook his head. "You belong with Ron, you always have. I dated you for a selfish reason. I can't really explain it and I'm sorry for that… it's just not the time" He wanted to tell her but he had to figure out what he was going to with Ginny before he tried to explain to his friends.

"So you're not mad at all?" Hermione was beyond confused at this point but a wave of relief washed over her as well.

"No. I have my own stuff I have to work out and not of it is you are Ron's fault." He stated honestly and walked up to Hermione. "The only thing I want is to put whatever may have happened behind us."

Hermione still couldn't believe that she was the one that came barging into his room with a books worth of things to say and ended up barely speaking two sentences before the problem seemed to have been solved.

"We're all still friends right?" Hermione asked a little nervous that his answer wouldn't be definite.

He smile and hugged her. "Of course." They pulled apart. "Just give me a few days to figure some things out and I'll be able to fill you in."

"I think I can handle that." She finally smiled. "So are you hungry? I kind of skipped out on breakfast this morning, I'm sure they are still serving."

Harry grabbed his sweater. "Yeah let's go."

****

Ron had been sitting at the breakfast table for nearly forty minutes now, he had seen Hermione come and go almost thirty minutes earlier. He tried to tell himself that she was coming back but he knew that wasn't the case. The more he thought about it he realized that hadn't had one show of PDA in the last week and a half, minus the show they had accidentally put on for Harry the night before.

Of course they were always together but everyone was used to that, was she not comfortable being his girlfriend in public. After all she was the one that opted for the late night rendezvous hiding in some dark classroom rather than just a peck on the cheek in front of their friends.

Ron mentally slapped himself, he had to quit letting his insecurities get to him, Hermione was with him now. She just needed to clear things up with Harry, that was all, then they could be together. That's it he just had to wait a little bit longer and everything would be fine.

He finally decided he was ready to leave and quit waiting for Hermione to come back, he had some studying to catch up on anyway as school was starting up again in three days and he had been severely distracted lately.

Harry and Hermione had almost reach the entrance to the great hall when Hermione stopped them. She turned to face him "I just want to say thank you", Harry raised his eyebrows in question. Hermione smiled "Thank you… for understanding… Ron and I"

This time Harry smiled back. "I just want you both to be happy… and that is with each other" he pulled her into a hug and gave her a give kiss on her forehead.

Ron had turned into the hallway at the exact moment this purely friendly exchange occurred. Seeing Harry's lips on Hermione, even if it was just her forehead had Ron seeing red. He could see they hadn't noticed him yet and chose to slip out of sight in the other direction, he couldn't face either of them this angry. He secretly wanted to see what Hermione would say about it later, but he was still hurt that after it all she was still in Harry's arms and he was still kissing her.

Harry and Hermione separated completely moments later and turned to continue their walk to breakfast. Upon entering the room it was Ron that Hermione was scanning the room for but this time he was the one that was nowhere to be found. She shrugged it off as he had just finished eating and had something to do, she would find him later and fill him in.

Hermione went to sit next to Ginny who was just getting her food prepared, Harry paused for a second before choosing to sit across from the two girls. Hermione still had no idea about the whole Ginny situation and there was no reason to bring it up at this exact moment. He made eye contact with Ginny and smiled, causing Ginny to blush and smile back.

He must have ended things with her, Ginny thought to herself. He had written in his letters that he was going to as soon as he got back, but they would have to wait before anything between them could happen. She was ok with that, she knew about Hermione and her brother so she only knew it was a matter of time before no one's feelings would get hurt at the idea of her and Harry getting together.

The three had a very peaceful breakfast as Harry shared a few of his stories from his trip as well as explaining why he had come home early, citing some meeting Sirius claimed he absolutely must attend. Ginny shared some stories as well knowing that he already knew them from her letters, but she decided to put on the show for Hermione.

"Well I'm stuffed, I better go find Ron" Hermione stated as she got up from the table after the long breakfast.

This caught Ginny by surprise as she wasn't aware that Harry knew the full extent of the relationship between those two. But once she caught a knowing exchange between Hermione and Harry she knew the cat must have gotten out of the bag. Ginny watched as Hermione left, when she was finally gone she turned to Harry.

"She told you huh?"

Harry looked at Ginny, only half surprised that she knew about it. "I kind of caught them on top of each other last night" he took a large bite of his food in an attempt to avoid elaborating on the subject.

Ginny laughed "Good for them, I would have told you but it wasn't really my place"

"No it's fine, I was shocked at first but they belong together." He looked at Ginny a little more seriously. "It makes it easier for us at least" He smiled.

Ginny felt butterflies, he was finally acknowledging that they could actually be something. "Remind me to thank my horny brother" she laughed trying to lighten the mood. As much as she loved the idea of her and Harry finally being an actual item she didn't want to get her hopes up just in case Harry changed his mind.

***

Hermione had searched for Ron for a little bit but when she couldn't locate him in his normal hideouts she decided she would wait for him in the common room. She easily got busy with her studies at one of the tables while she waited.

Ron had done as he planned and gone to the library to catch up on his studies but he couldn't get the vision of Harry kissing Hermione out of his head no matter how hard he tried. He wanted to believe it just meant the they had mended their friendship but he just couldn't stop there. His mind wandered through all sorts of scenarios, where had they been for so long? What had they been doing? Just talking? Maybe more?

He slammed a book shut hoping his visions would go with them. He knew he and Hermione could never be together if he didn't trust her… if he couldn't get a hold of his damned insecurities. It took some time but he was able to settle down enough to actually get some studying done, eventually it was the only thing he could do to keep his mind from wandering to carnal thoughts about his two best friends.

It was nearing dinner time before Ron finally felt that he had sufficiently fulfilled his study quota for the week. His stomach growled and he without thinking packed up his things and made his way to get some food.

Hermione was on her way to dinner when she finally saw Ron for the first time since breakfast, she had waited in the common room for hours but he never showed. She grew worried that he was still upset with her and hoped she would have a chance to make it up to him. When she saw him in the hallway though she had a feeling yet another argument was about to commence just from the look on his face.

**Ok so I swore I had the next chapter on this computer but I didn't so I am sorry in advance but the goodies between Hermione and Ron will have to wait till I can get my other computer from an undisclosed location. It could be as early as tomorrow evening or this weekend… sorry. But for all of you faithful readers don't worry what you've been waiting for is coming. I just don't like to dive in as you can tell haha. Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for all the reviews!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: I own not a lot. **

"Ron! Hi, I've been looking for you all day" Hermione greeted him.

"I didn't really want to be found" he looked past her as she walked up to him.

"Where were you?"

"Doesn't really matter" He was being pretty cold.

Hermione thought about calling him out but decided she'd fill him in on the Harry situation first to see if his mood changed. "So, I talked to Harry…"

"Yeah I figured as much" he continued to look past her.

Hermione dismissed his comment "Right… well we've more or less put everything past us…Ron are you listening?"

Ron finally looked at her. "Yeah, you and Harry are buddy buddy again. I hear you."

"What's your problem? You knew I had to talk to him, I couldn't just pretend nothing happened."

Ron shook his head. "I wasn't aware that talking included embracing and kissing in public" he glared at her. His ability to reason had obviously left him. He thought he had calmed down after studying for six hours straight but it seemed to just fester and now it was coming out.

Hermione backed up a step reeling from the accusation, her jaw dropping. "Are you insane?!"

"Hermione I saw you…"

Hermione tried to think of what he could be talking about. The only thing she could come up with was Harry kissing her on the forehead right after he said she belonged with Ron.

"Ron, you're going to have to stop this." She stated running a hand through her hair.

"Stop what Hermione! We've only been together for barely two weeks but you have already shown more affection in public to Harry than me. What do you expect me to think?!"

She sighed in frustration. "If I wanted to be with Harry at all why would I be standing here arguing with you?" she half way mumbled. Ron said nothing.

"Ron I want to be with you but if we have to get in a fight every week because you think I don't want to be with you then there is nothing I can do." Her voice was getting weaker, she hated to even think it but she couldn't be with Ron if he didn't think he was good enough to be with her.

Ron let the words sink in, he couldn't believe that after all the years of waiting for her he finally had her and could lose her based on his own insecurities. He took a step towards her.

"That's the last thing I want Hermione, but I can't just sit back and only be allowed to touch you when we're alone." He hung his head voicing the very insecurity that had been eating away at him. "I want everyone to know that we're together, I don't want to have to tone it done because of Harry, or anyone for the matter. I don't see it's so easy for you to show affection to him in front of everyone and not me…"

Hermione couldn't tell if she was happy or sad. She was happy that Ron had finally been able to voice what was bothering him instead of brooding and blaming her silently, but she was sad the he felt that she was embarrassed to be with him.

The hall was starting to fill up with people making their way to dinner, with school getting closer to starting up again it was beginning to look like normal with all the students back. She could feel the eyes on both of them. Just about everyone had always know Ron and Hermione to be best friends and seeing them it was seemed like a heated discussion obviously attracted some attention. She'll never forget the looks she got after her and Harry and decided to date, shock and awe mostly.

Ron could feel the eyes on them too, he cautiously took a step back as he would have on any normal day. But apparently this day wasn't as normal as he had anticipated because just as he proceeded to take his step back he felt a hand grab his. He looked down at his hand then at the girl who was holding it. He smiled, thrilled that she had made the initial contact in public.

The thrill continued as he felt Hermione pull him towards her, she placed her free hand softly behind his head with her thumb resting on his cheek. Before he knew it he felt Hermione's newly familiar lips on his. It was the second time in 24 hours that she calmed all his fear with a kiss, he wanted to stop putting her in these situations but the outcome seem to favor him. He would have to think up more, less dramatic, ways for this to keep happening.

Hermione controlled the kiss, she pulled Ron down towards her and gently sucked on his full bottom lip. Ron let go of her hand and used it to bring her body closer to him, she arched her back into the kiss. A few moments later she broke away "Public enough for you" she smiled up at him. Ron was bright red but over the moon, he stole a glance at the students walking into the great hall who immediately diverting their own stare to their feet.

"I think it was public enough for everyone." He pulled her into a hug. She was his, all his and everyone knew it now.

"Can we finish this later" she arched her brow, "I'm starving".

"Absolutely" Ron's grin was plastered on his face as they walked hand in hand into the great hall, trying to act as casual as possible since his heart was beating a mile a minute.

***

Ron and Hermione had continued their actions later but only as per routine. Since then everyone had gotten busy with getting back to school and neither of them felt they had the opportunity to slip away. It had been over a week since there last rendezvous and Ron was starting to feel a little… anxious.

Hermione hadn't shied away from their public displays of affection but those little kisses actually caused more damage than good. In the past, especially with him and Lavender it was purely physical and while he would go years without kissing Hermione if that's what she really wanted, it didn't mean that the needs that Lavender satisfied weren't yearning for some of Hermione's attention.

He had spent the greater part of his History of Magic class trying to come up with ways to spend some alone time with Hermione. He didn't want to make it obvious because he was sure that would make her uncomfortable, he never wanted to push Hermione further than she was ready to go but he figured the more comfortable she was the further she might go. He felt kind of like an asshole for thinking about it that way but he was a guy, he couldn't help it right? Besides, he still hadn't come up with a decent plan so the odds of anything happening soon were slim to none, at least at this rate.

Hermione watched Ron fidget with his plant. She loved how cute he was when he was concentrating on something. At least he able to look like he was concentrating on something, Hermione had been struggling all week to get things done. She had even been dedicating more time than usual but she would almost always end up spending half of her time studying daydreaming about Ron. She hated herself for it, not that she was obviously head over heels about Ron but the fact that she could barely think of anything else but him. She had to come up with a solution to this problem and quick before her grades started slipping.

Hermione must have slipped off into yet another daydream because when finally snapped out of it Ron's eyes had met her staring ones and was smiling at her from across the table. Hermione blushed a little and smiled back before practically burying her head in her book, she had to pay attention to something else for once.

Ron continued to watch her, everything she did made him want her more. He watched as she bit her bottom lip and in reaction bit on his to keep in an audible growl. It was no question he had to get her alone soon.

***

It was another three days of little contact and Hermione running off to study before Ron had finally got Hermione all to himself. Of course it took about twenty attempts and excuses to make it happen but it happened none the less. He had scouted the location when he tagged along with Harry on some random chores he was doing for Dumbledore. He had never noticed it before but he'd probably seen it a dozen times.

After Harry and him had finished their duties Ron and slipped back up to the Herbology greenhouse, it was here that he saw the opportunity. Over in the corner he saw an old green plush couch with antique wood carvings framing it. There was a little table next to it with an old candle holder on it and the whole set up was situated next to two French doors that opened up onto the terrace filled with more plants but even more of a view. The walls of the green house were all but covered in plants and the only clear view back onto the terrace was through those doors, offering plenty of privacy.

He stood and stared at the layout in front of him, he quickly pulled out his wand and worked his magic on getting rid of the dust and cobwebs that had gathered around the couch and table. He moved them both to face the doors a little better and took one final step back to make sure everything looked perfect. Well as perfect as finally somewhere to spend some time with his girlfriend without the prying eyes of hundreds of classmates could be. It only took him the walk back to Gryffindor to come up with a plan to get Hermione to join him, he also noticed the he couldn't have chosen a more out of the way classroom. Hopefully this meant the odds of anyone accidentally stumbling upon them would be much lower, especially since their last intimate encounter was exactly in a private place.

It wasn't until after dinner when Ron had washed up and made his way down to the common room where he asked Hermione to meet him. She was there in pajama pants and a white long sleeve shirt, her hair loosely tied up as if it was ready to fall and flow freely. She was reading a book as per usual but Ron was happy to see it was her Herbology text book as he had asked for help on his homework on that exact subject this evening. _Perfect. _

He plopped down by her side. "Look at my little bookworm" he joked and leaned in for a quick kiss.

Hermione smiled and shut her book. "You love it" She held the book to her chest. "So what did you need help with?"

"Well about that… I do need help but it's more of the hands on kind of stuff." He said, he wasn't lying but it wasn't his fault that Hermione thought they were still talking about plants.

"Oh?" she asked wondering if he would elaborate.

"Yeah I can show we just have to head up to the greenhouse. I asked for permission don't worry" now that was a lie, but Ron didn't really care. He would take all the blame if any trouble came their way.

Hermione arched her brow, she was growing a little suspicious of this homework session. But as Ron stood up and offered her his hand to help her up she just decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

The whole way up to the greenhouse Hermione posed questions to Ron about what they would be working on. What kind of plants, what kind of potions etc. His answer was almost always the same "Nothing crazy, you'll see" and there was his grin that never left his expression.

Upon reaching the greenhouse it was completely dark outside, there was a light dusting of snow on the terrace but it wasn't as cold as it looked. They entered the greenhouse and as Hermione felt around for the light switch she felt Ron stop her. She look at him as to ask what's wrong, her eyes were adjusting to the moonlight coming in through the windowed ceiling and it was then she noticed another faint light in the corner.

Ron locked his fingers in hers and calmly led her to the corner he had set up earlier. He had lit the candle secretly with his wand as they entered and it now flickered quite brightly, shining light on the couch and the flowers he had decided to lay out at the last second. They both stepped into the dim light of the candle, Ron looked down at Hermione who was now looking up at him with what looked like a hint of fear in her eyes. All of sudden everything he had wanted to happen as he set up this elaborate plan went to the back of his mind.

After reading the fear on her face and guessing it had something to do with them being alone together he spoke. "Like I said, nothing crazy. I just wanted to finally spend some time with you, alone. Without studying…" he smiled and looked at the book still clutched to her chest.

Hermione had known something was up. She wasn't totally against the idea of them being alone together at all, but this seemed a little to intimate for her at the moment. She trusted Ron though and decided to just take advantage of the time they had, she wouldn't let things get out of hand.

**Sorry it took a while. Next chapter will be up ASAP. Hope you see where it's going and enjoy where it's been, thanks for everything!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: I don't own it all.**

**RATED M FOR A REASON**

"You didn't have to trick me into coming Ron. All you had to do was ask" she smiled and picked up a flower to smell.

"I figured, but I wanted it to be a surprise and I didn't want to pressure you into thinking it was something more." He made a move and sat down in the middle of the couch.

"Something more?" she asked quietly as she made her way to the couch as well. She sat in the corner and brought her knees up to her chest as she faced Ron.

Ron noticed the defensive posture and tried to explain himself.

"You know, most girls that are brought up to something like this might think…" he looked to Hermione who was staring at him intently.

"YOU, might think I was expecting something…physically."

"Oh" was all she said. She didn't know what else to say to something like that. Ron was the only guy she had ever even considered getting 'physical' with but she didn't think she was ready for THAT.

"I'm not." He stated. He now felt like a complete git, but he actually was before he had actually found himself in the situation. Now he would just be happy if Hermione looked at him with any expression other than worry.

Hermione finally lightened her mood, she needed to stop being such a baby. She knew Ron would never make her do anything she didn't want to do. If anything she should be thrilled that she had a boy who was romantic enough to even think of this to do for her. She finally gave a half smile, she was still scared but it wasn't fair to Ron to ruin the moment.

"I know." She spoke. Ron looked up from his lap to her, surprised that she even spoke at all. "I know you would never act on it at least" smiled again and Ron chuckled. They both were silent for a bit.

"Ron?"

"Yeah?"

"Since I guess were on the subject…" Hermione blushed to herself before she continued. "How far…how far did you go with Lavender?"

Ron gulped at the sound of the question. He didn't know if he should answer truthfully as that could scare her off even more, or lie and have her find out eventually which could be worse than just telling the truth. He figured honesty was the best policy.

"Well…" Ron struggled for a second "we did do some things" He looked to Hermione to gauge her reaction.

"Did you…" Hermione made what she thought were hand motions that would portray 'all the way', they didn't but Ron understood anyway.

"No no no. We didn't have sex." He shook his head. "But just about everything else" he admitted. If any guy had asked him this question he knew he would feel more pride than guilt, which was what he was feeling now that the girl of his dreams was the one asking.

Hermione's mind was immediately filled with visuals of what 'everything else' might be, except in her mind it was between her and Ron, no Lavender included.

"I'm sorry, I know you didn't like her." Ron said to break the silence.

Hermione snapped out of her visual. "You don't have to be sorry Ron. I guess I just feel like no matter what we do now you'll compare me to her" she paused, Ron opened his mouth to contest but she cut him off before he could start "It's not that I think you still like her or anything, I obviously have you wrapped around my little finger" she joked and he nodded with a smile on his face. "It's just that I don't want to disappoint you, I'm SURE she was experienced enough to be good at those things and well I'm just not." Hermione put all of her insecurities on the table.

"You could never disappoint me 'Mione, not like that." He reached out to take her hand in his. He looked into her eyes and tried to comfort her with his.

"Did you ever do anything with Krum…or Harry?" he asked, a little scared to bring Harry back up again.

Hermione shook her head "The farthest I've gone with anyone is with you, if that's any indicator" he scoffed at herself.

Ron felt relief wash over him in waves. He thoroughly enjoyed the fact that he would be the one to show her the "ropes", more importantly that they opportunity to be each others' first. He smiled. "Is it bad that I love that about you, you're so innocent" he smiled and looked at her adoringly.

Hermione blushed again and finally moved her knees out away from her chest, she didn't need to be so closed off towards him. She draped her legs across his lap. "Not at all". She scooted down so that her head was resting the arm of the couch and her body stretched out a little more over Ron's lap.

"Has this couch always been here? I've never seen it" she asked non-chalantly but she was fairly aware that her new position was going to make it difficult for Ron to hold a regular conversation.

"Yeah, I cleaned it up though." He cleared his throat. He was trying his hardest not to push her, but at the moment she was the one pushing him it was only so long until he fell over the edge right. Plus all that sex talk moments earlier had already put the thought in his mind and he'd be trying to fight back since.

Hermione watched him squirm for a few more moments, she felt like a tease and knew from gossip that wasn't necessarily a good thing but she loved seeing what she could do to him without actually doing anything.

"How long is it going to take for you to kiss me?" She asked playfully, maybe she didn't want to be just an innocent little girl anymore.

In an instant Ron had closed the gap between the two of them and found her lips, it was a little rough and needy at first but eventually Ron had calmed down and so had their kiss. He was bracing himself against the arm of the couch with one hand while the other wrapped around Hermione's back arching her closer to his lips. Their tongues explored each others' mouths softly.

Ron shifted his body from his awkward sitting position so he was now laying on his side next to Hermione. The upper half of his body laying over her as they kissed. Hermione slowly sunk down in the couch as the comforting weight of Ron overcame her as they kissed. She tangled her hands in Ron's shaggy hair and nibbled on his bottom lip causing him to release a moan.

He ran a hand down Hermione's side and stopped at her hip where the hem of her shirt ended. Slowly he slipped his hand underneath and touched her bare skin, it was practically on fire which caused Ron to smile against their ongoing kiss. He finally left her lips only to relocate to her neck by tracing kisses along her jaw all along the way. His hand began to roam higher under her shirt until he reached the bottom of her bra, he slowly cupped her breast over her bra. He heard a small gasp come from Hermione and feared he had gone too far already. He removed his hand from her breast and moved it slowly back down her side before he felt her hand on his chest pushing him back.

Ron silently cursed himself and rolled back onto his knees straddling one of Hermione's legs as she came to a sitting position in front of him. "I'm sorry" he breathed out looking down at her.

Hermione looked at him with a serious look that he couldn't quite place but he didn't have much time to place it as he watched her reach down and pull off her shirt in one quick motion. Ron was shocked, this was the last thing he suspected but he was not at all disappointed. He glanced down as Hermione laid back to her previous position and couldn't help but smile, when his eyes finally reached her face he could tell she was nervous.

Hermione couldn't believe she had just done that, her heart was racing a mile a minute. She was now laying all but completely exposed to Ron and his eyes were burning holes in her, good holes, but holes none the less. She wished he would do something so she could stop worrying that she had just made a mistake. She started to cross her arms in front of her in an attempt to cover herself from his gaze.

It was then that Ron reached down to remove his own sweater and return to his position over top of her. She felt the warmth of his own bare skin and felt safer immediately. He had propped himself up and was looking into her eyes.

He whispered "You're Amazing."

Hermione smiled and brought him down into another deep kiss, her hands wrapped around his back and glided over his sides as they continued. She could feel Ron's excitement growing against her hip and instinctively bucked her pelvis ever so slightly. This caused Ron to break the kiss with a groan. He choked out a laugh "Slow down baby" he whispered "tonight is about you… not me".

Hermione was about to say something but was stopped abruptly by Ron's lips. Shortly after, his hand began to wander south. He was soon at the waistband of her pajama pants and tugged lightly before slipping his hand under the waistband all together and dipping between her legs. Ron could feel the moisture through her panties and rubbed against the fabric to test the boundaries. Hermione stopped kissing him but didn't make a move to stop his hand. Ron took this as an OK to continue.

Their lips were barely an inch away from each other and Ron could feel Hermione's breath hitch as he pulled the fabric aside with his thumb and ran two fingers up and down her wet lips. "It's ok, just relax" Ron whispered and kissed her. Hermione heard the words and tried to do as he asked but was finding it increasingly difficult especially now as she felt her pants and underwear being pulled down her thighs. She could feel the cold air collide with the moisture between her legs and realized a whole new level of feeling exposed.

Ron was feeling a new found sense of confidence as he was finally in territory he had been in before and she hadn't. Granted everything he did with Hermione was technically new territory but he knew what to do and how it would make her feel at least. He quickly found her sensitive nub and began massaging it in circles. Ron felt Hermione's jaw dropped against their kiss and pulled away to watch her reaction to what he was doing to her.

Hermione's eyes were closed as she let the new sensations wash over her, she had no idea something so simple could feel so good. Her breathing started to speed up as Ron worked a little harder, somewhere in the back of her mind she was happy she had decided to shave down there today.

Ron continued the torture by slipping two fingers between her slick lips making sure to wet them enough before tentatively entering her with them and gave a few short pumps. Hermione's eyes flew open and Ron's hand froze. "Do you want me to stop?"

Hermione didn't really know what she wanted but she knew that him stopping wasn't it. She shook her head and mouthed the word "no" but it was barely audible. With that Ron resumed and added his thumb into the mix by rubbing her clit has his other fingers carried on. He traded glances between watching his hand and watching her, at one point Hermione moved her own hand down to her hip, for a second he thought she was going to join his hand in the fun.

When he looked back at her she was biting her lip and it took almost all of his self restraint not to remove his own pants and take her right then and there. He leaned down and kissed he collarbone and kept placing kisses along her neck and jaw until he reached her ear. All the while his hand was still maintaining its own agenda. He could hear Hermione's whimpers as he continued. He glanced back down her body and saw her hand had crept a little closer, he slowly stopped and reached for her hand.

Hermione felt Ron's wet fingers intertwine with hers and pull her hand down to where his hand had just left.

"Have you ever done it to yourself?" Ron asked his voice laced with the sound of lust.

Again Hermione find it very difficult to voice words. "No" she finally admitted. Still trying to wrap her head around what was happening.

"Will you do it for me?" again Ron's husky voice surprised her.

She couldn't tell what was turning her on more, the way he was talking to her or the feeling of him pleasuring her. The thought of doing what he was suggesting nearly drove her over the edge.

"Show me?" she asked anxiously as she was finally able to gather some sort of reason and looked into Ron's eyes.

Ron lips curled into one of the sexiest grins she had ever seen just moments before his lips crushed against hers, his tongue thrusting inside. He continued to caress her mouth with his as he slowly guided her hand into position. He started by showing her thumb what to do to her delicate nub and knew she was doing it right when the moans returned. He then directed the longest of her fingers inside of her and felt her begin to move.

He broke away from the kiss so he could watch Hermione tease herself. He couldn't help it when he started to softly grind himself against her hip again. He watched as Hermione started to realize what she could do to herself, her hips began to buck against her own hand. Ron's hand was resting on Hermione's inner thigh and he could feel her hand touch his as she moved in and out of herself. He couldn't hold himself back from joining her hand. He slipped a finger in joining Hermione's in rhythm. This time he heard her mutter his name between her moans.

"Ron don't stop" she moaned out.

Upon hearing this for the second time he knew he had to do something soon or he wouldn't be able to hold himself back.

"Let me finish it" he gutted out.

Hermione removed her hand and let it rest on her lower stomach as Ron added a second finger and his thumb in to the mix yet again. Hermione opened her legs as wide as she could to allow him better access but with her pajama pants only half way down her thighs she felt that it wasn't good enough. Ron proved her wrong however as her shifted his arm and worked even harder on her.

Within a minute Ron could tell Hermione was close because her breath started to shorten and the hand she had tangled in his hair still was tightening its grip. Hermione could feel Ron push against her with his skilled hand and bit her lip hard as the waves of her first ever orgasm hit her. Her back arched towards him and squeezed her eyes shut to be treated with what looked and felt like an explosion. An intense explosion, something she never thought possible. She knew she was mumbling something but had no idea if they were real words.

When it was finally all over she felt like she had never been so relaxed in her life. By the time she was coherent enough to open her eyes she felt Ron pull her pants back up to cover her and reach over to grab their shirts of the floor.

"Is something wrong?" Hermione asked confused as to why everything had suddenly turned around. Still breathless and flushed

Ron could tell she was taking it the wrong way. "If I don't get you back in clothes soon I'm afraid I never will" she smiled and he kissed her. They both sat up and put their tops back on. Ron looked at her "I have no words to describe what just happened".

She turned to face him. "Is that a good thing?" she was still confused why he had stopped everything after it seemed like it was going so well, so so well.

"A very good thing" he placed a hand on her cheek and she leaned into it. "But trust me it was the best for us to stop where we did, I don't think I could control myself for much longer. You have no idea what you do to me."

"You don't have to control yourself for me… I trust you Ron" she put a hand on his knee.

"You're not ready for 'That' Hermione, I don't think I'm even ready for that. If you trust me you'll trust me on this" he kissed her forehead. "Don't worry I'll try to come up with more opportunities for us to be like alone" he grinned.

Hermione finally smiled, she realized that as good as he made he feel he didn't want to ruin it by going too far. He really was perfect. "Well… that was amazing" she blushed.

"You weren't so bad yourself" he teased referring to the little show she put on for him. His face turning a very bright shade of red, he had been so focused on removing the temptation after he watched Hermione go through her climax that he had pushed the mental picture of her playing with herself, for him, out of his mind. Well it was back and back with a vengeance and he needed to get somewhere private to relieve the pressure of his aching erection. With all the images he now had in his head he figured it would only take about 30 seconds.

"We should get back before someone catches on" He stood up and adjusted himself quickly before offering a hand to her.

Hermione's legs were a little wobbly when she stood up, she still couldn't get over how good everything felt. Now that she had a taste of it she wasn't sure she'd be able to stop. She felt like the next few days would be focused on learning how to return the favor rather than her studies.

**More to come soon, hope you all enjoyed. Reviews are very much so welcomed and more chapters soooon. Thank you for all the support. **


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: I'm back kinda.**

Hermione and Ron entered the common room hand in hand, both had grins plastered to their faces and Hermione was still a little flushed from the events that occurred earlier. The room was empty of all but Ginny who was just starting to pack up her things from what looked like a tough study session.

She looked up to see her brother gazing intently at Hermione who had just turn to look at Ginny. A bright red blush crept up Hermione's cheeks now as she bit her lip. Ginny wasn't entirely sure what that meant but she had every intention of finding out.

"You guys are coming in late" Ginny commented as she picked the last of her books up. This caused Ron to snap out of his gaze from Hermione and actually realize that there was someone else in the room, the question statement alone caught him off guard.

"We're just five minutes late… what of it?" Ron forced out in what he realized was a very defensive tone.

"Ron it's not like she's going to report us" Hermione tried to calm him down a little bit.

"Well what was she doing waiting for us to come back?!" Ron was getting angry and he knew it was misplaced. He figured it had more to do with his still hard erection and now he had to wait longer to relieve the pressure because his sister had decided to make small talk.

"I didn't even know you two were…out! Sorry." Ginny stomped past the two of them. "Goodnight Hermione" she called as she made her way to the stairs, purposely leaving her brother out.

"Gin, wait up a sec!" Hermione called out. Ginny stopped short of the stairs but kept her back to the couple while she waited.

Hermione turned to Ron. "What was that all about??" She said quietly.

Ron shook his head. "I don't know, just caught off guard I guess. I'm sorry."

"I'm not the one you should apologize to" Hermione motioned in Ginny's direction.

"I'll deal with it tomorrow." He glanced back towards Hermione taking her hands in his. "I really loved tonight"

Hermione blushed an ever deeper shade of red. "Me too." She smiled shyly and reached up to give him tender goodnight kiss. Ron had to cut it shorter than he would have wished because of his inner struggle below the waist. He was afraid any more physical contact with Hermione tonight would deal him a very embarrassing blow.

"Goodnight 'Mione" he smiled.

"Night Ron" Hermione turned and quickly was at the side of Ginny and ascending the stairs.

Ron used all of his remaining strength to wait till they girls had left the room before he made the mad dash up the stairs to the closest bathroom he could find. A _refreshing_ shower was exactly what he needed. It wasn't more than 15 seconds of the hot water running over his exposed body accompanied by a few expert jerks of his own hand before Ron had to suppress many, rather loud moans. It was absolutely amazing what Hermione could do to him, it was never that easy with Lavender and if he was completely honest with himself even when he was with her he still thought of Hermione when he pleasured himself. It was even better now that he had the permanent image of Hermione playing with herself burned into his mind.

Ginny was dying to ask Hermione about her evening, even though she knew the all the juicy details would technically be about her brother she had somehow found a way to block that from her thoughts.

Hermione was still blushing when Ginny spoke up before reaching her floor. " You look awfully flushed for someone who was just helping my brother study" Ginny hinted.

Hermione coughed as if she was choking on what Ginny was inferring. "I don't know what you're talking about" she was obviously lying.

" It's ok you don't have to tell me. But if you think for one second that Ron won't say something to Harry, who will in turn say something to me…" Ginny didn't have to finish the sentence before she could see the realization on Hermione's face.

Once they reached the door to Ginny's floor they stopped. "Soooo" Ginny prodded.

Hermione's blush returned yet again. She actually really appreciated having a girlfriend to talk to about this and she really wanted to divulge the details and even hoped for some advice on how to return the favor but she could help but think it would be weird having this conversation with Ron's sister, no matter how close of friends they were.

"You know that anything that happened… your brother. Ron Weasley. Was the boy involved Right?" Hermione wanted to make it absolutely sure that Ginny knew what she was about to hear, for now and in the future.

Ginny smiled knowing that information was coming her way. "I am very aware that Ron Weasley is my brother. I am also very aware that you are my good friend and that every girl needs someone to talk to about…well you know. And besides if you tell me yours I'll tell you mine" Ginny winked then laughed a little.

Hermione bit her lip and cautiously looked around to make sure no one was around. "I don't really know what to say exactly." Ginny gave her a raised eyebrow.

"That bad huh?" She joked.

"No, no, no. Not at all. It was… really good actually." Hermione's mind flashed back to images of their actions earlier.

"Wait… you guys had sex!" Ginny yelled but in a whispery way.

Hermione's eyes almost came out of her head. "NO! I hope you're joking, we've only been dating for like three weeks Ginny. What kind of girl do you think I am!" Hermione retorted in the same whispery yell Ginny had started.

Ginny grinned "Hermione if you think that you and Ron's relationship is only three weeks old you're a more naïve than a first year. You two might as well be married with all of your history, but you both seem to enjoy the angst much more. Also, no I didn't think that you would have sex already, which is why I was shocked when I thought that was what happened." Ginny had to take a breath from the speech she felt like she had just given.

"oh. Well, we didn't. I've only just barely seen him with his shirt off, don't worry" Hermione tried to calm the conversation down. She felt like Ginny had just told her exactly what she had been thinking all along and only now did it seem like the truth. It was true her and Ron had only been officially together for less than a month but they have been together emotionally for much longer.

"So what article of clothing has he seen YOU without?" Ginny could see Hermione's thought trailing away and wanted to bring her back to the more important things.

Upon hearing this new question Hermione found it difficult to make eye contact with her friend. She cleared her throat. "A bra" she said quietly.

"My brother can unhook a bra! I'm shocked" Ginny giggled.

"No. He's seen me without everything… but a bra." Hermione corrected her.

"Ohhhh" Ginny caught on realizing what could have happened with Ron fully clothed and Hermione basically barenaked. She noticed Hermione's glance hadn't left her feet. "I think we've had enough fun talk for tonight." She moved into to give Hermione a one armed hug while she cradled her books in the other.

"If you think tonight was good, just wait. It gets better" Ginny stood back and entered her hallway "Night Hermione" she smiled and turned towards the door to her room. Knowing full well that she just planted the thought in Hermione's head about how far she'd gone with someone. She figured it was the right thing to do since Hermione was obviously all over the place in her head, why not give a little something extra.

Hermione stood there with a blank look on her face still trying to soak up everything that had just occurred. She admitted intimate details to her boyfriends' sister, she couldn't shake the memory of Ron's hands between her legs and now Ginny just implied that she was more experienced than she had let on. "Goodnight" she said absently before climbing the last flight of stairs to her floor.

As Hermione laid in bed trying to fall asleep everything just kept running through her head, most prevalent was the new source of sexual information she had just encountered through Ginny. Hermione started fell asleep as she made a list of questions in her head to corner Ginny with the next day. She couldn't deny that she would feel awkward asking Ginny for tips on how to please her brother but Hermione knew he deserved something and she didn't want to just wing it. Hermione was a researcher by nature, she always wanted to things to the best of her ability and this was no different.

**Sorry it took so long for the update, been super busy. I'll be out of the country for the summer starting in two weeks. I plan on either finishing the story or leaving the readers with enough to tide them over till the end of august. The more the reviews the more motivation I get! Haha thank you for reading hope you all are still enjoying it. **


	18. Chapter 18 Mystery Boy

**Moreeee…**

Hermione had been kind of out of it all day, the events from the night before were still fresh in her mind. She thought a good nights sleep would help her but her complete lack of sleep probably had obviously gotten in the way. There was no reason for her not to fall asleep immediately, she was nearly exhausted from all the commotion but her head seemed to disagree. Until now that is, she felt like a walking zombie and could only imagine that she looked like one as well. Throughout all of her classes she had barely managed to scribble down a page of notes, this was definitely not in character.

She had only seen Ron in class and was just coherent enough to smile at him whenever he looked her way. He was at quidditch practice now, she knew that, she figured now was as good as time as any to see if she could get her questions answered. She needed to find Ginny. She knew the best place to find her before dinner was the library because that's where Hermione always was, before her and Ron began spending more and more time together. She wondered if her regular table wouldn't even be free anymore.

Upon entering the library and seeking out her table to set up shop before going on a search for Ginny she was pleasantly surprised to see Ron's little sister sitting right where she was headed. She took a deep breath before approaching from behind and setting her book bag on the table next to Ginny. Ginny jumped at the thud next to her before looking to see Hermione.

"Warn a girl" Ginny whispered quite loudly.

Hermione gave a half smile "Sorry". She took the seat next to her friend. "I see you've found my table" she continued to whisper.

Ginny smiled "Yes, I'll have to thank Ron for pulling you away from the library. The location is perfect" a wink followed the statement.

Hermione chose to ignore the last comment and got out her books in preparation to study. She didn't know what she was going to study since she had only really come here to talk to Ginny but she had to at least pretend for awhile, she didn't want to look too desperate even though the bags under her eyes were probably a dead giveaway.

Ginny sensed something was up but decided she would let Hermione come to her instead of forcing it out of her, by the looks of it she probably wouldn't have to wait very long. Hermione was just flipping through pages of all her books and scribbling nothingness on her pad of paper in front of her. "Are you ok?" Ginny asked, the tone of concern in her voice very evident.

Hermione snapped up from her "studies" and nodded. "I'm fine" she lied. But afterwards she made a solid attempt to actually study, to write a coherent sentence at least. She lasted all of two minutes before dropping her pencil and turning to face Ginny completely. "What did you mean when you said 'it gets better'?"

Ginny smiled to herself and finished writing her sentence before looking to Hermione. "That's what you've been thinking about this entire time?" she joked.

"Well no… and yes… but no not really. I don't know. Sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up" Hermione blushed and turned back to her books.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about Hermione. What did want to know?" Ginny tried her best to coax Hermione back into the conversation. As proper as Ginny liked to seem she secretly loved the fact that she had a friend to talk sex about, even if it wasn't actual sex they were talking about, yet.

Hermione glanced around the room to make sure no one was in earshot and spoke softly. "Everything?" she let out a laugh. " Mostly… how to return the favor?" Hermione almost cringed as the question came out, she couldn't believe she was asking this question.

"Are you asking what to do or how to do it?"

"I know what I could do, but just don't know how to go about it I guess?" Hermione didn't feel like this conversation was getting any easier but she was relieved to be talking about it with Ginny, rather than just thinking about it to herself.

"Its pretty simple, if you are really sure."

Hermione thought about it for a moment before nodding. "I think I am. He deserves something at least, I mean I'm not ready for everything… but some things I think I am ready for."

Ginny grinned, she had successfully forgotten about the fact that they were talking about her brother and she was ready to help Hermione try new things. She had to admit that most of the things she had learned had been from a magazine that Lavender had given her while trying to insult her. Little did Lavender know that Ginny had learned everything she needed to learn from it. She would give it to Hermione the first second she got a chance.

"Well I think I have something that will help you, at least on ways to do things." Ginny offered.

"Really? What?" Hermione was intrigued.

"It's just a magazine that someone gave me, it talks about everything." Ginny decided that Lavender didn't need to be a part of this conversation.

"Perfect" Hermione said as she tried to think about what this publication would tell her to do. Then another thought popped in her head. "Wait… have you tried them then?"

Ginny couldn't help but blush a little bit herself. "A few things yes."

"What things!? With who!?" Hermione raised her voice and immediately knew she had said that too loud. They both looked around to see a few students staring at them so they had to fake studying for a few moments.

" You wouldn't believe me if I told you" Ginny whispered still looking at her book.

Hermione's jaw dropped. "Try me"

"You'll find out soon enough, but the important thing here is you and Ron. Trust me with the stuff I learned you won't have to worry about not returning the favor ever again"

"Well did this mystery boy enjoy it?" Hermione asked leaning in closer. Hermione was pretty curious about Ginny exploits with this boy, but more importantly who the boy actually was.

"Did you enjoy what he did to you last night?" Ginny answered Hermione's question with a question of her own accompanied by a suggestive arch of her eyebrows. Hermione quickly forgot about Ginny's past experience and focused on her own. If she could make Ron feel as good as he made her feel she knew he would feel nothing short of amazing.

"Oh" was the last thing Hermione said before the two girls finally finished studying and started packing up.

"Thanks Ginny. I know this is kind of awkward but I really do appreciate it." Hermione said as they walked back to the common room.

"Hermione it's really no problem, you two make each other happy. I like helping you out" Ginny smiled.

The girls finally entered Gryffindor as they continued to speak. "So when am I going to figure out who you practiced all this tips on?" Hermione asked half way joking. Ginny laughed as well. The girls were still focused on their own conversation when they entered the room and ran right into Harry, literally, as he was getting ready to leave.

The minor collision had caused Ginny to drop her books which Harry immediately bend down to retrieve for her.

"Here Gin" Harry said grinning and looking only at her not even noticing that Hermione was to her right.

"Thanks" Ginny returned to Harry, with a secret look and a pair of cheeks now a shade darker. Having to keep their "relationship" private actually made them want each other more, even the littlest bit of contact seemed magnified since they couldn't act on it in public.

Hermione took one glance at the two of them googly-eying each other and couldn't believe that she hadn't known it all along. Harry was mystery boy. "ohhhh" Was all Hermione said causing the gaze between Harry and Ginny to finally snap.

"Oh well Hermione and I have to go get something from my room, see you around Harry"

Harry only had time to nod before Hermione was being dragged behind Ginny up the stairs and away from him.

When the two girls were finally alone again Hermione spoke up. "So that was easier to figure out than it should have been" she stated. She wasn't sure how she felt about it but she knew she didn't wholly disapprove. After all she was dating her brother. But she felt like this wasn't just something that popped up and could have been going on while her and Harry were fully together.

"Yeah, Im sorry about that. We haven't told anyone and we just thought it would be for the better to keep it quiet for now. "

"You're secret is safe with me" Hermione promised. Still feeling torn on how to feel about this situation.

They arrived at Ginny's room and quickly gathered up the magazine. Ginny pointed out a few things for Hermione to read and she was on her way. She was always good at homework there should be no reason she couldn't learn how to make Ron from a book.

**Sorrrrry I'm back now, and lots of updating to occur. **


	19. Chapter 19 He's Mine

**More more more. **

It was almost a week until Hermione found the time to look over the magazine Ginny had lent her. It had been sitting on her night stand under a potions textbook for days. Finally one afternoon she found herself alone in the room with more than thirty seconds for herself for once. She sat on the edge of her bed and flipped through the pages. It took Hermione all of three articles from the magazine to realize what she was doing was ridiculous. She was sitting on her bed in the middle of the afternoon reading dirty columns about how to please her boyfriend, it shouldn't be this difficult. She stuffed the magazine in a drawer and slammed it with a little bit of conviction. She shook her head and walked towards her window to see if she could tell if quidditch practice was over yet.

Her and Ron had been unintentionally torn away from each other for the most of the week with practices and school work. They tried their best to spend time together but couldn't ever find more than twenty minutes alone. Hermione had tricked herself into thinking that Ron was doing it on purpose to avoid intimate contact. But Ginny kept blaming it on their busy schedules. They weren't fighting or anything they were actually getting along perfectly well but she couldn't stop thinking about what they weren't doing.

She couldn't spot anyone so she decided to make her way back down to the common room to see if she could run into Ron. Just as she opened the door to leave Lavender was walking down the hall, Hermione immediately cursed to herself as she had been avoiding Lavender successfully for a week until now.

"Hermione you live!" Lavender joked as the two came to meet in the doorway. "I haven't seen you awake except for meals in forever" she continued and made no move to walk into the room but rather stood there and wait for Hermione to respond.

"You know me, study study study" Hermione mumbled. The last place she wanted to be was standing here having to gut out a conversation with a person she couldn't even stand to look at.

"Really?" Lavenders' voice was suspicious. "I've heard different" she crossed her arms and arched her brow trying to gauge Hermione's reaction.

Hermione finally made eye contact, Lavender had obviously heard about Ron not that it was a secret or anything but she didn't think they were that obvious.

"What do you mean?" Hermione played dumb.

Lavender scoffed. "Oh admit it, you and Ron have been pining for each other for years. What made it happen this time? Got a little horny? Couldn't resist him?"

Hermione's jaw dropped at the accusations coming from Lavender, she tried to form a sentence in defense but Lavender beat her to it. She had taken a step closer to Hermione "Just remember Hermione" she took another step to the side towards the doorway. "Every time you two are all alone enjoying each others'…'company'…don't forget that he moaned my name first." She giggled and shut the door in Hermione's face when she turned to say something.

Hermione clenched her fists in anger, she was mad that she let Lavender get her this worked up but she was even more upset with the words she used to get to her. Because they did, they got to her and they got to her in the worst way. It was bad enough she was already far too worried about what could come to happen between her and Ron physically and now Lavender just voiced her biggest concern. Even though Ron had already admitted to his activities with Lavender, the comment made it all too real and it was now eating away at Hermione's insecurities.

All the courage she had built up in her head over the past few days had now escaped her. She couldn't ever imagine being compared to Lavender especially not when it came to a moaning Ron. She shook her head and vowed to herself that no matter what someday she would make sure Lavender got what she deserved. Hermione drug her feet all the way down to the common room which all of the sudden was where she did NOT want to be. She needed to take a minute and get her head straight and hoped she would have the time before she ran into Ron in her shaken state.

She got lucky and was able to cozy up on the couch in front of the fireplace. Only two other students were in the room and they were both studying silently on the opposite side of the room. It must have been an hour before a group of boys coming down the stairs snapped her out of daze.

She immediately recognized both Ron and Harry's voices but didn't turn to greet them, having no clue of what to say. She felt relief wash over when two hands landed on her shoulders and gently started to massage.

"Hey" Ron bent over the back of the couch to give her a kiss on the cheek. Hermione smiled and turned to kiss him quickly. Her head was still a mess but she didn't want him to know that. In fact her head a been a mess since even before their first kiss she didn't know love would cause she a headache.

"Your back is all stiff" Ron pointed out as his hands continued to massage.

"Just a little stressed out is all. That feels amazing though"

"What can I say I'm good with my hands" He joked.

Hermione suppressed a laugh, the mere mention of his hands made her think about the night in the Greenhouse.

"We should probably get to dinner, I can finished this up after if you want" He squeezed a knot on her back.

Hermione sighed. "Yeah, let's do that" She said without thinking focusing mostly on how good his hands massaging her felt.

When they arrived at dinner Hermione's face turned beat red as the vision in front of her did not please her. Out of all the seats at the Gryffindor table Lavender chose the spot next to Ginny to sit at this evening. It was almost as if she was making it her personal mission to ruin Hermione's day. She let go of Ron's hand as they walked to their seats which were located across from Lavender.

Ron could tell the situation was upsetting Hermione even though she would never say anything out loud.

"Joining us Lavender?" Ron asked. He wasn't very happy to see her either ever since their break-up Lavender had been pretty unpredictable and he didn't need that in front of Hermione.

"I was just talking to Ginny here and then food happened. Nothing crazy Won Won." She looked to Hermione as she mentioned his nickname.

"Stop calling me that" Ron said angrily as he sat down.

"Oh I'm sorry. Bad habit I guess" She smiled and made eye contact with Ron which stayed locked for a few moments too long.

This did not go unnoticed by Hermione, she was now certain Lavender still had a thing for Ron. Great. She cleared her throat loudly, she couldn't let that happen. She placed a soft hand on Ron's back, he turned to face her when she spoke quietly. He couldn't quite understand. "Something wrong love?" he asked, feeling a little bit guilty about the staring contest he just had with Lavender in front of her.

"Do you want to skip this and finish the massage instead?" she asked boldly obviously insinuating more. She wasn't sure where that action would take them but she knew for sure that it would get them both away from Lavender and that was her only goal at the moment.

Ron's eyes widened, the thought of food suddenly erased from his mind, it was now filled with less appropriate thought. He had to physically shake his head of the images that were being conjured up to muster a response. "really?" he asked in a higher voice than anticipated.

Hermione nodded coyly, it was her turn to give Lavender a look. She hoped the glare translated to "he's mine".

Ron stood first "Not that hungry" he announced and waited for Hermione to join him. "Me either" she stated as they both began the walk towards the exit.

The people sitting immediately around them looked on in confusion as they didn't hear the private conversation that occurred before the random exit.

"Well that was strange" Harry exclaimed as he took a forkful of food. "Hope they use a condom"

Ginny hit him. "oh drop it. Hermione's not like that. It's too soon."

"This conversation is already over" Harry laughed, he in no way wanted to have an extended discussion about his best mates' and ex-girlfriends sex life.

"I'm just saying it's obvious they are so infatuated with each they don't know what to do with themselves. Including night time activities." Ginny rambled on loud enough for only Harry to hear.

"Right, well we'll see." Harry took another bite of his dinner.

**Sorry still on the short side, good things coming trust me. But if you haven't noticed I enjoy angst, you have to earn the dirty stuff by suffering through the angst. HAHA. Thanks for everything, reviews are loved. Hopefully an update by Saturday.**


	20. Chapter 20 Jealousy

**Here it be.**

Ron and Hermione wandered the halls after their departure from dinner. Hermione was actually hungry but couldn't stomach sitting across from Lavender and her inappropriate comments for an entire meal. She felt bad luring Ron away with suggestions of physical contact just because she felt uncomfortable. She really needed to get a hold of herself, she had always been in control of her surroundings, she always had everything figured out for the most part, even Krum was easy to navigate. But Ron was a whole new story now, they had grown up together and been there for each other through everything and up until Krum and Lavender never had an issue of any significance. Hormones suck. Hermione thought to herself as she was trying to come up with something to say so that their aimless wandering didn't seem so… aimless.

"Thanks for leaving with me, I just didn't really feel like being there at the moment" Hermione admitted.

"I know" He had a little grin on his face. "Lavender."

Hermione looked to him grateful that she didn't have to explain the whole thing. "I'm sorry. I know you two… well whatever you two had is between you but I can't help but want to curse her every time she looks at you like that."

Ron stopped and turned to face her. "Why Hermione Granger is that a jealousy I hear creeping into your voice?" He boasted.

Hermione was a little taken aback, she had been jealous before but never about a boy and never to the point that she would remove herself from the situation. She stayed quiet for a moment realizing her new found intense emotion. "I…"

Ron's trademark grin was wide now "Hermione I'm joking. There is nothing to worry about and you know it." He leaned in for a simple kiss. "I broke up with her because of you, now I have you. I couldn't be happier" He wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her into a comforting embrace.

Hermione finally smiled and returned the embrace. He was hers. "Since when did you learn to know exactly what to say?" Ron just kissed her forehead before breaking the hug and reaching out for her hand.

"How about we just walk for a little while. They should be done eating pretty soon." He said as he started to move again.

"Thank you." Hermione commented quietly. "You should also know that if I hear that girl call you Won Won one more time…"

"I'll curse her myself" Ron interrupted.

The couple laughed and talked and ate for the next hour before finally separating with a long goodnight kiss shared in the empty common room before they each went to their rooms for the night.

Ron waited until he couldn't see Hermione on the stairs any longer before he finally began his ascent to his room. He felt like he was glowing, true Hermione had the ability to make him 'feel' all over but in this case it wasn't in a sexual manner at all. It was just her. He loved being around her, and loved it even more that she wanted to be around him. He realized it when she had her minor jealousy slip up. He always assumed he was the jealous one between the two, now he felt like she needed him as much as he needed her. The whole evening was spent just enjoying each others' company a far contrast from the awkward sexual tension they had been encountering for the last week.

If he thought he was in Love before it was on a different level now. He knew she felt the same way but he could only hope it was as intense for her as it was for him.

When he finally entered his room he nearly broke his bed from falling on it, he had had a long day and was just coming down from his Hermione contact high, he was dazed.

***

Hermione took her time walking to her room. Tonight for the first night Ron had shown that he could take the control for her, or better yet there was no need to worry when it came to him. She knew she had made the right decision by following her heart and not head, she finally felt that the whole Harry incident had served a purpose in pushing her towards him. She was happy for that and some day would thank all parties involved.

She quietly entered her room praying that he roommates were sleeping, no such luck. Lavender was sitting on her bed reading the magazine Hermione had slammed in her drawer early today.

"Have you been going through my stuff?" Hermione accused quite loudly.

"Ginny said she lent it to you when I asked for it. I wanted to brush up on some things. It's not like you have anything to hide Hermione. I doubt you have or have done anything worth snooping around for" Lavender looked up from the article.

Hermione was steaming, she almost reached for her wand but her self-control finally kicked in. _You don't want to be expelled for cursing this trash._ She didn't know why but Lavender was able to push her buttons so easily. She searched her extensive vocabulary for something to sting Lavender with and she was drawing an absolute blank, she couldn't believe it.

After a few short moments Hermione breathed a heavy sigh and walked towards her bed. She couldn't believe her blissful evening with Ron could so easily be trounced upon.

"No comeback? You're usually so witty Hermione. I'm disappointed." Lavender chuckled.

Hermione sat on the edge of her bed. "You don't merit a comeback Lavender it would be a waste of my time." She rubbed her neck and glance over to the other girl. "I don't know why you're reading that magazine though, seeing as that you have no one to 'brush up' with now." Hermione daggered.

There was no response, just frantic turning of the pages. But just as Hermione thought she had finally been able to shut her up the pest show up at the end of her bed and dropped the magazine in Hermione's lap. The magazine was opened to an article entitled "Tips and Tricks that will Drive your Man Crazy in Bed" and Lavender was pointing to #23 which Hermione glanced down at.

"If you're curious… that's his favorite." Lavender taunted and remained standing above her.

Hermione closed her eyes and did everything she could erase the mental picture of Ron enjoying #23 with Lavender. It wasn't working. She needed to see him.

Hermione stood up abruptly throwing the magazine across the room and physically pushing Lavender to the side as she made her way to the door. She could be in here any longer. She could hear Lavender triumphantly laughing as she shut the door behind her. She took a few steps down the hall and leaned her back against the wall to collect her thoughts for a moment. She needed to find a way to take charge of the situation with Lavender. She couldn't let Lavender's prodding and vulgar comments come between her and Ron, but somehow they slowly were. Another flash of #23 came to her mind and she was off again, down her stairs and up the opposite in one short minute.

She was breathing heavily and her eyes were watering by the time she reached his door. She tried to catch her breath before she mustered up the strength to knock on the door. She could hear mumbling behind the door obviously fighting over who was going to answer. When the door finally opened it was a tired looking Harry who quickly woke up when he saw the alarming apparence of his best friend at his door in the middle of the night.

"Hermione! What's wrong? Are you ok?" Harry tried to say in a hushed tone but it was loud enough for everyone in his room to hear.

Hermione realized what this probably looked like, maybe she was grossly over-reacting but for some reason she felt the only way she could calm down is if got to speak with Ron. He needed to settle her down.

"What? Oh no, no, no… everything is ok don't worry. I just… I just need to talk to Ron." She ran a hand through her hair and wiped an anger tear from her eye. "Is he awake?"

Harry looked confused and worried but knew it wasn't in his hands anymore. Ron had already made it to his side at the door after immediately getting out of bed at the mention of Hermione's name.

When Ron saw Hermione worry filled his expression. Hermione saw this and instantly tried to bring the alarm level down a few notches. "I'm fine, no danger, no nothing. Ron I just wanted to see you, can we talk for a minute" Hermione asked finding it difficult to remember why she came with Ron standing in front of her in only a wife beater and boxers. She nearly gulped out loud trying to swallow the lump in her throat.

Ron's face lightened a bit but she could tell he wanted to know what was up. They had only left each other twenty minutes earlier, oh how the atmosphere had changed.

"Yeah of course" He looked to Harry to signal that he had it now.

"Goodnight." Harry said as he departed obviously feeling a little left out, he noted that was probably only a fraction of what Ron felt when he and Hermione were together in front of him.

Ron grabbed his robes off a hook and slipped on some slippers. He stepped into the hallway and shut the door behind him.

"What's wrong? And don't say nothing because you don't look like nothing is wrong. What happened?" He took her face in his hands and search for the answer she wasn't giving him.

Hermione cleared her throat. "I don't know… I don't know what say I just needed to see you. Lavender said something and then I got angry… and…" she shook her head. "I'm so sorry I shouldn't have come all the way over here just for that" she closed her eyes and willed Ron to release her from his hold so she could run away for the whole situation.

Ron looked at his girlfriend who was obviously shaken, he didn't know the whole story but he did know that it had something to do with Lavender and he knew from experience that this could lead somewhere bad.

"Here come with me" he said as he slipped an arm around her back and guided her down the hallway.

**Hope you enjoyed, thank you for all the reviews. Side note I know Lavender isn't really that conniving and rude in the books but I thought it fit nicely, we need a villain to keep up the angst DUH. Thanks again. REVIEWS are GREATLY ENCOURAGED! spoiler, they don't just "TALK".**


	21. Chapter 21 Broken

**Viola. Happy New Years Readers!**

They needed to get out of the public hallway just in case someone walked out and saw Hermione in the boys' dormitory. He thought about taking her to the common room but it wasn't yet curfew and people could still be straggling in. He wasn't sure what was wrong but he was pretty sure she didn't want to discuss it in public. They ended up at a room on the 3rd years floor that Ron knew to be currently empty of students living in it.

The two entered and Ron felt Hermione shudder at the shock of the cold air but before he could bring her closer to him she broke away and stood a few feet away from him. He turned to lock the door, just in case there was a curious third year running around and then back to face her.

He looked around the room before looking at Hermione who was standing with her arms crossed in front of her and visibly shivering. It was as empty as he thought it would be, with nothing more than four empty mattresses on the custom beds, and an oversized chair obviously placed in there for storage. After a moment he spoke. "Hermione please talk to me"

Hermione looked at him, she didn't know what she was thinking coming all the way over here like this. "I'm sorry, you must think I'm out of my mind." Hermione shook her head. There was no way Lavender was telling the truth, right?

Ron was more than confused. He was still trying to figure out how they got here. "Just tell me what happened."

She took a deep breath. "Lavender just said some things that upset me and I guess the first thing I thought of was to come find you. I didn't really think about it I just did it. Now I feel like an idiot and you're looking at me like I'm crazy."

Ron let out a small sigh, he had to admit this was a little crazy but decided to put most of the blame on Lavender rather than Hermione. "Well what did she say?" He tousled his hair and tried to think of what Lavender had spilled this time, he knew what they had done with each other but he did not need Hermione knowing all of the dirty details. He knew what she was capable of and was afraid that if he couldn't get Hermione to ignore it soon it would just get worse.

Hermione had another vision of #23 that Lavender pointed at. "Nothing… it was nothing." She shuddered.

"Do you want me to talk to her?" He asked.

Hermione's head snapped up. She really didn't want Ron to go anywhere near that girl. "Not really. No."

"I have to say something, I can't stand to see you this upset because of her." Ron urged.

Hermione appreciated the concern but wanted to avoid any interaction between those two more than ever. "Thanks… but I think I'd be more upset if you two had a conversation at all... especially if it was about me." She admitted.

"Well I don't know what to do then 'Mione, I feel nothing for her. If this is what we are going to be going through already, over someone like her… maybe this isn't going to work." Ron bluffed. He knew he would do anything to make this work but Hermione needed to see past Lavender's sabotage attempts before it was too late.

Hermione could tell he was getting frustrated with the topic and she couldn't blame him. "Maybe we shouldn't talk about this right now." She said trying to drop the entire thing, that last thing she wanted to do was to fight with him.

"We have to talk about it sometime or you'll just continue to think that Lavender is still in my life somehow, she's not!" Ron nearly shouted.

"I never said that!" she countered. She couldn't seem to form her argument any better.

Ron stood up straight, he didn't want to argue about this but he could see right through Hermione's attempt to convince him. "You know what I meant Hermione… You won't even tell me what she said! What am I supposed to think!? " His frustration evident, from the moment they walked into this empty room he could think of nothing but laying Hermione down on one of the empty beds, and spending so much time arguing about Lavender was only provoking him even further.

"Ron it's not that I think she's still in your life, it's the fact the she WAS in your life. You two… did things. And I know it shouldn't matter but it does, I don't know if I can do what she did for you." Hermione confessed. "The way she looks at you and the things she says to me when you're not around only make it harder. I can't be her, not like that."

Hermione waited for some type of response but Ron said nothing, not immediately at least. After what seemed like an eternity of silence Hermione didn't know what else to do. She had this horrible feeling that Ron and Lavender really did do more than what he told her. Ron just stared at her, she couldn't tell if he was at a loss for words because what she said was true or just trying to figure out what to say next. Either way after twenty seconds of silence Hermione had decided this was a bad idea and wanted out.

"I told you it was nothing." Her voice cracked, she needed to get out of there, she put her head down and started to walk towards the door and leave the situation. She could tell this had taken a drastic turn for the worse by Ron's lack of response.

Ron watched as Hermione made her way to the door, he had been stunned by Hermione's statement. He couldn't believe that she thought so poorly of herself, especially compared to Lavender. Yeah they had messed around more than a little, but it was different with Hermione, completely different and she just couldn't see it even though he told her over and over again.

He couldn't let her leave in the middle of this, he didn't know what to say though. He turned to go after her and grabbed her wrist before she reached the doorknob. He pulled just enough to spin her around to face him again.

"Don't go". His eyes speaking louder than his words, which were staring intently into hers. "We can't leave it like this." He pleaded.

Hermione couldn't look at him, she didn't know what her problem was. She knew she was head over heels for him but she somehow just couldn't get over him and Lavender… together. She figured it wouldn't be such a problem if she didn't have such a vivid visual stuck in her head. She just wanted it to go away, she wanted it all to go away.

"I didn't want it to be like this." Hermione stated barely above a whisper her voice clearly breaking, on the verge of tears but she was able to bite them back.

Ron let go of her wrist at the sound of her voice and took a step back. He wrapped his hands around the back of neck and exhaled loudly. He just wanted to make it all better, "What do you want it to be like?"

Hermione finally looked up at him. "I wanted it to be US" tears were now starting to form now and there was no holding them back.

Ron took a tentative step forward, he hated to see her like this. "What do you mean love, it is Us. It's only us."

Hermione shook her head. "Lavender…" she whispered.

"Hermione, please stop." Ron was growing more and more worried by the second. "There is no Lavender. I wish there never was."

She looked into Ron's eyes. "Did you have sex with her?" she weakly demanded. Finally putting into words what #23 described, she left out the details of the position of course but came clean what Lavender implied by pointing directly at it.

Ron steadied himself in front of her, he didn't know how to respond. He never considered what they did sex but he could see how Lavender would have and used it to hurt Hermione. "Not really"

Hermione's jaw dropped and her hand went to cover her mouth. Tears flowed freely now. "You said…"

Ron's heart was breaking. "Hermione it wasn't like that, please" He took a final step toward her causing Hermione to back up firmly against the door shaking her head.

Hermione couldn't tell what hurt most the fact that he lied to her about it or the fact that they could no longer be each others' first, something she had wanted more than anything up until 30 minutes ago.

Ron tried to explain "It was one time and… I chickened out. I guess technically yes, it happened but only for like 5 seconds before I knew I didn't want to, not with her. We broke up because of it Hermione. She wanted to try all these things from a stupid magazine and I couldn't take it anymore, I only entertained it because I thought… you… you and Harry might have" Ron trailed off. "I would have told you but I didn't want to see that look on your face, the one you're giving me now. I'm in love with you Hermione, please believe me." Ron searched her face for some kind of sign, any sign that she understood.

Hermione heard everything he had to say, she still couldn't shake the visual but she believed him. He had just spilt his guts to her and all she could think about was if she hadn't got mixed up with Harry… Ron would have never touched her. "I hate her". She meant it, but what she wanted to say was that she hated herself for feeling like this.

"I'm so sorry 'Mione" he hesitantly reached out to pull her into an embrace. Hermione let him, she was just broken by the only person that could fix her. He held her while she cried into his shoulder, "I never wanted to hurt you" he whispered. After a few more moments Hermione's sobs had finally subsided, she was exhausted.

"Are you ready to go?" He asked softly, his forehead touching hers.

Hermione looked up to him and shook her head. "No" she breathed…

**TO BE CONTINUED!**

**I've been writing quite a bit lately so new chapters to come throughout the week sorry for the DREDFUL hiatus! I promise to give you the goods soon. Reviews are encouraged :) **

**Also I apologize for promising intimacy and not delivering haha, dont worry there is a method to my madness even if it does take 5 months to finally get around to, don't worry you wont have to wait long.**


	22. Chapter 22 You're Perfect

**Ummmm M for a reason. Please enjoy.**

"_Are you ready to go?" He asked softly, his forehead touching hers._

_Hermione looked up to him and shook her head. "No" she breathed_…

Almost believing it herself. She felt way too safe in Ron's arms, her body was buzzing at the mere contact between them. Despite everything that just happened the last thing she wanted to do was walk out of that room and be away from him.

Ron was now just inches away and was leaning at a painfully slow rate, he couldn't help himself. "Are you sure?" Ron whispered against Hermione's lips.

Ron let his lips linger dangerously close to hers until Hermione couldn't take it any longer and inched up on her toes and began to slowly kiss him. Ron's hands found her hips and he pulled her closer deepening the kiss. After a few moments he broke the kiss, "Hermione, we don't have to do anything." He panted slightly. He could feel the spark between them more than ever, but it didn't make sense after the conversation they just had and he wanted to avoid anything they would both regret. He had learned that lesson already.

Hermione answered with another deep kiss, her emotions were running wild. All she could think about replacing the horrific, even if only half-true, image of Ron and Lavender with one of their own, she figured it was the only way. Her kisses we becoming more frantic as she walked Ron backwards towards the closest bed.

Ron could feel his legs hit the edge of the bed which caused him to stop. He still didn't want it to go too far but it was becoming increasingly difficult. He remained standing and continued to meet her frantic kisses with his own. After a few moments Ron relocated his lips to the crook of Hermione's neck eliciting a whimper from her. Triggering the hands he had on her hips to slowly inch the hem of Hermione's shirt up her sides as he continued to kiss down her neck. Hermione raised her hands above her head and allowed Ron to quickly dispose of the garment on the floor. Their lips met again this time with a little more passion. Hermione's hands were now on Ron's shoulders pushing his robe down his arms, it landed on the bed behind him leaving him in only his sleeping tank and boxers.

Hermione realized quickly how fast this was moving, but made no move to stop it. After all that had gone down and everything they had been through to get to this point, this felt like it needed to happen. It was seconds later that Ron's shirt met hers on the floor. Hermione's hands explored his bare back up and down before teasingly stopping right above the waistband to the fabric covering his backside.

Ron was having some trouble controlling the urge to move them down on to the bed. He didn't want to assume things were going to happen but with Hermione pulling him even closer it would be nearly impossible to hide his growing erection through the thin fabric of his boxers. He knew he should put a stop to this but right when he was going to protest Hermione reached behind her back and unclasped her bra. Ron swallowed the lump in his throat and reached out to slowly bring the straps down exposing her breasts for the first time to him. He took a moment to let the image of her standing topless in front him to settle. Hermione felt his eyes on her and her arms now shyly crossed her in front of her. She knew she shouldn't feel so self conscience in front of Ron but her first reaction was to cover herself up.

Ron couldn't help but grin a little, he could not get over how innocent she seemed. He always knew her to put on a brave face but in the recent weeks he got to see how vulnerable she really was and appreciated that he was the only one who got to see it. Then a wave of guilt hit him, she's only doing this because he told her that he and Lavender kind of did. But again before he could say or do anything Hermione's lips were back on his and hands were roaming yet again.

"Let's lay down" Hermione whispered between kisses.

"Hermione, i… don't" Ron tried to speak but physically couldn't as he watched his girlfriend slip past him and lay down on her back seemingly waiting for him to join her. Ron reluctantly climbed onto the bed and cautiously hovered over her. With one gentle kiss from her he found himself a lot less cautious as lust began to take over. Hermione was finally starting to get a little nervous, not nervous enough to put a halt to everything but nervous none the less. It didn't help her nerves when Ron left her lips and began down her chest stopping to draw a nipple into his mouth then alternating to the other.

Hermione's jaw dropped at the new sensation and tangled her hands in his shaggy hair not wanting him to stop. Ron could feel his erection grinding against her hip as he kissed his way back up to her lips, it was almost unbearable, thank Merlin he had left her jeans on her. Hermione had felt Ron against her as well and as he returned to her lips her hands detangled themselves from his hair and ran down his back and around his sides to the front of his boxers. She could feel his excitement through the fabric and daringly slipped one of her small hands under the waistband, grazing the swollen tip and running it down his smooth shaft. Hermione's eyes shot open as she realized how large it was, her hand seemed like it took forever to reach the curls at the base and even longer when she stoked back up towards the head.

She couldn't believe she was actually doing this, she was thankful for what little she did read in the magazine however as it seemed to be working. But just as she started to stroke faster Ron groaned and pulled away from the kiss.

Ron knew it was time to stop this because if he didn't her innocence and whatever was left of his would be lost in some dingy storage bed chamber, not exactly how he'd imagined it and he could bet Hermione hadn't either. But it felt so good. He let Hermione continue for a few more moments before completely pulling away.

"Hermione…" he had backed away just enough to cause her hand to slip out of his boxers but he was still hovering over her breathing heavily and looking into a set of worried eyes. His body was still draped over hers but he had shifted most of his weight to his forearms. He knew this was moving too fast, this shouldn't be happening, not tonight, not after their argument.

"was I.. was I doing it wrong?" she stuttered.

Ron sighed, that couldn't be further from the problem. "No. not at all, you were doing it a little too well actually" he tried to joke but he could tell Hermione was confused and worried. "Hermione, we just can't" he admitted, fully thinking this was leading to sex.

Hermione was frustrated she didn't know what to do anymore, how could he let Lavender do all those things with him but they could barely get past second base without him backing off. "Of course, what was I thinking" she pushed up on Ron's chest just enough to get out from under him. She quickly got off the bed and searched the floor for her discarded bra and promptly put it back on.

Ron was dumbfounded, girls were emotional wrecks. One second Hermione's hand was wrapped around his hard-on nearly driving him crazy and the next she was standing 5 feet away from him putting her clothes back ON. He shook his head and stood up to grab their shirts of the floor. He was the one that stopped it but if Hermione was that adamant he couldn't lose her over it.

"We weren't thinking Hermione that's the problem." He said holding the shirts firmly in his hand even when Hermione reached out to take hers.

"You're right were busy, doing other things, things I thought you wanted to do" She glared, crossing her arms in front of her since Ron was still holding her shirt.

"Of course I WANT to Hermione, but do you really think right after we have an argument about sex which led to you crying is the right time?" Ron gestured emphatically. He had to admit all he really wanted to do was let her finish what she started, he was sick of arguing. He plopped back down on the bed exhausted and still ridiculously aroused. He put his head in his hands, "Can't you tell that I want you" he glanced down at his lap and then to Hermione "A lot." His head returning to his hands.

Hermione took a step toward him, she literally couldn't tell what emotion she was feeling, half of her wanted to barge out of the room humiliated and angry and the other half was glued to the floor looking at her boyfriend in obvious mental and sexual agony. She quickly decided that leaving wouldn't solve anything and chose to sit next to him on the bed. She placed a hand on his bare back and gently slid it up and down and placed a kiss on shoulder.

"I'm sorry, I guess I'm not exactly being the most rational am I"

Ron scoffed "I didn't really help the situation" he looked to her. "You should know that if… when we do I don't want it to be a rush decision. I regret what I did with Lavender too much, I would never do that to you. I want it to mean something." He chuckled "I sound like a total git, don't ever tell anyone I said that" he halfway joked, but Hermione smiled.

"You're secrets safe with me" she whispered and kissed him briefly. "Thank you… for everything"

Ron smiled back and sighed. "Guess we should be getting back".

Hermione's gears were still turning though, "Wait" she said grabbing his arm as he made a move to stand up. "You know as you've demonstrated so well before, if one of us keeps our clothes on…" she insinuated another course of action.

Ron nearly choked, she was right he knew they were nowhere ready for sex but a little working up to it couldn't hurt. After all he had already seen all of her it was only fair she got to see all of him. He should have figured it would happen eventually but after what happened tonight he didn't know what to expect anymore, but he had to admit we was not about to say no. "Really?" he said in disbelief.

Hermione blushed now, her confidence of earlier fading but her curiosity was growing and she was strangely eager to return the favor from the greenhouse. "I think so, I'm not entirely sure how to…" she started but Ron interrupted.

"Trust me, it won't be an issue" he claimed knowing all too well that with the amount of sexual frustration he'd been experiencing lately, even if most of it was self inflicted, he wouldn't be able to hold back for long especially with Hermione involved. He smiled and leaned in to kiss her again.

He took it slower now that he knew what the end game was and wasn't nervous about going too far like he had been before. He could tell Hermione was significantly more apprehensive though as she kissed him back. Her hand was on his knew and as they laid down it slowly crept up his thigh, Ron used his free hand to inch his boxers down gradually releasing his straining erection. Hermione removed the boxers the rest of the way and broke the kiss to steal a glance, she didn't know what she expected but she knew had to do something other than just stare at it.

Ron sensed her hesitation and slowly took her hand in his and guided it to the base of cock, Hermione grasped her small hand around his thickness and Ron placed his hand over hers enticing her to stroke like she had started to earlier. After a few shared strokes Ron released her hand and let her take over on her own, he kissed her between gutted breaths and groans as she instinctively squeezed harder and pumped faster. Moments later he couldn't continue to kiss her as he was beginning to see stars, his head fell back as he let the sensations wash over him completely. Hermione, his Hermione, was wanking him. He almost lost it on the thought alone, he couldn't even count how many times he thought of her while he performed on himself and now she was doing it for him, nothing with Lavender ever felt this good.

Before long he felt Hermione trailing kisses down his bare chest and abs all the while her hand still pumping. "Oh my god" he said outloud. Causing Hermione to pause, "is this ok?" she whispered.

"Merlin's yes" he exhaled, "don't stop."

With that she continued, Hermione never thought she'd be in this situation but she couldn't deny that she loved what it did to him. She wanted to push the envelope a little more and daringly placed wet kisses along his shaft, eliciting deep moans from the boy under her. When she reached the swollen head which was a very dark shade of purple compared to the rest of it she slowly wrapped her lips around it and continued stroking as her tongue caressed the tip from inside her mouth.

Ron wished like hell he could hold out and make this last as long as possible but the fact the matter was he was seconds away from exploding. "Herm..i" he tried to warn her but couldn't gut it out before his orgasm hit him like a brick wall. He moaned loudly as he endured the waves of pleasure washed over him, he vaguely heard Hermione choke a little before feeling his warm seed flow onto his stomach but the stroking was still helping him along.

After a few moments Ron began to regain coherence, when he opened his eyes he saw Hermione lightly wiping the corner of her mouth. He could easily get hard again just from that image. Instead he sighed and reached for his wand from his robes that were still on the bed next to him to quickly clean up the mess. After he finished he cleared his throat.

"Sorry, I should have warned you" he finally said.

Hermione snapped out of whatever thought she was caught up in. She blushed "it's ok" looking up at him. "was it…"

Ron almost laughed "it was. You have no idea" he smiled and slid towards the edge of the bed where she was sitting, he took this opportunity to retrieve and put his underwear back on.

"You ok?" he looked at her worriedly hoping that this wasn't a mistake.

She smiled "yeah, can we stay here for a little bit though I don't think I can go back to my room quite yet" she asked, she felt closer to him now than ever before and leaving so quickly after that, especially to go face Lavender, was not on her list of things to do.

"Yeah of course" he reached around behind him to gather his robes to wrap around her as he could see goosebumps forming. "Whenever you're ready" he scooted her back further on the bed and laid down beside her.

"Are you cold?" she asked him noticing that she was completely covered facing him and he was still clad in only his boxers.

He smiled. "I'm actually kind of on fire, you seem to have that effect on me"

"Well can you warm me up then" she joked but knew he'd be under the robes with her in an instant, which he was. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him, she felt his bare against her and he was right he was on fire. She nuzzled into the crook of his neck "you're perfect" she mumbled as she started to drift off into a blissful sleep.

It wasn't exactly "I love you" but he was more than enough to make his hear flutter. He squeezed her closer to him and closed his eyes for the last time that evening.

**Ta da, new chapter. To be sure I had like 5 drafts of this chapter with varying degrees of intimacy, it was very hard to choose but I feel that this one just works better for the story, I realized parts might be kind of confusing but went with the "anyone in the situation would be highly emotional and confused as well" justification haha, just go with it. Hope you enjoyed! Reviews Please! and new chapters up soon, good to be back finally. **


	23. Chapter 23 Hopes and Concerns

**Something to tide you over for a few days…**

Ron awoke a few hours later to the feeling of Hermione breathing lightly against his neck, he smiled to himself when he felt Hermione still snuggled up to next him. But the happiness stalled once he realized that he could see that the sun was in the beginning phases of rising and that they both really needed to get back to their rooms if they wanted to remain at Hogwarts at all.

He slowly unwrapped his arms from around her and moved just enough to wake her up. He watched as her eyes opened slowly and waited for her to remember where she was.

"morning love" he smiled down at her and kissed her forehead.

"mmm morning" she reached up to kiss him softly. He returned the kiss but only for a moment.

" 'Mione we should probably get going, the sun is starting to come up" explained with his forehead against hers.

Hermione seemed to realize the situation they were in, almost at once her eyes shot wide open and she nearly jumped off the bed leaving Ron confused and suddenly cold from the lack of physical contact.

"Merlin! What time is it?!" she asked frantically as she quickly gathered all of her discarded clothing leading a path to the door.

Ron suppressed a laugh as he watched Hermione almost put her shirt on inside out. "Calm down 'mione, it can't be much later than 5:00, no one is up we'll be fine." He said calmly as he left the bed and put his robes back on.

Hermione didn't feel the same "What were we thinking?! If anyone sees me I'm finished. I should have never come…" she stopped herself from finishing the sentence knowing that the look Ron was giving her was one of guilt, he was already blaming himself for something that was both of their faults if not entirely her own. "let's just get back to our rooms" She said as she finished putting her clothes back on.

Ron wanted to ask her to say what she really meant but after the fight they had just hours before he just kept his mouth shut, he was tired of fighting and at this point would rather just have her be mad at him for now and he would find a way to fix it later. "right" He said quietly as he approached the door, his demeanor obviously different.

"let me check the hall and then just follow behind me ok" he searched her eyes for some sense of comprehension, he could tell she was scared because she said nothing. He gave her a sympathetic look and cracked the door open slowly to glance out, the dim lighting in the hall didn't reveal any danger and Ron opened the door further clasping one of Hermione's hands in his as they exited the room silently.

The couple made their way silently down the hall to the staircase where Ron stopped. "Do you want me to walk you down?" he whispered. He knew he wanted to, but knowing Hermione she wouldn't want to risk both of them being caught, especially together at this time of day/night.

She looked down the stairs then back to him. She wanted him to come but knew it was better for both of them that he didn't. "I should just go" she finally whispered back.

Ron nodded "see you at breakfast?"

Hermione smiled for her answer and squeezed his hand before turning and disappearing down the stairs and leaving Ron standing in the hall dressed in nothing but his boxers and his robes. He took a deep breath and made the cautious trip back to his room where he hoped no one noticed his prolonged absence. He had to admit he had a lot less on the line, he knew his mates would never rat him out but he couldn't say the same for Hermione if Lavender caught her sneaking back in.

He made it back to his bed without trouble but just couldn't find the ability to fall back asleep, he was worried about Hermione getting back to her room and was plagued by the arousing visions from the night before. It seemed every time he was intimate with Hermione he couldn't get it out of his head for days, in comparison he could barely remember even kissing Lavender. The only memory he could ever see clearly was the "sex" incident and every time he thought about it he would regret it even more. He never wanted it to be like that with Hermione but he couldn't help but let the horny guy in him want it to happen sooner than later.

Hermione made it through the common room and up the stairs to her floor without any obstacles, she paused outside her door to listen for any noise. She wished she had brought her wand with her when she stormed out of the room earlier, all this would take was a silencing charm and Hermione could be in her bed without alerting anyone. Fortunately, she was able to enter the room and glide to her bed without waking anyone up. When she finally crawled into bed she shut the curtain and closed her eyes, she took a deep breath and tried to let her mind catch up on the last few hours.

The visions rolled through her mind like a movie, everything from Lavender and the magazine to fighting with Ron and what happened afterwards. This part seemed to move in slow motion and Hermione couldn't believe she actually went through with it, she had been thinking about returning the favor to Ron for weeks and now that she had she was afraid it would quickly lead to more than she was ready for.

She was certain she loved him but if every time they got together started leading to a situation where she could potentially get expelled it wouldn't be good for either of them. She could feel herself losing her characteristic control as she got closer and closer to Ron. Her school work had started to suffer as well, she was still pulling near perfect marks but she found it increasingly difficult to focus on her studies when all she could think about was snogging Ron. And after tonight her mind would be filled with a round of new visuals to for her to distract herself.

She knew they belonged together but maybe they were taking things too fast, and the more she thought about the only reason she felt compelled to go over there in the first place was because of Lavender. Lavender was the one that put the idea in her head to go further with Ron, she wanted Ron to want her like he seemed to have wanted Lavender, so she acted like her and used her body to get Ron's attention and she felt a bit shameful because of it. She didn't like this revelation about their relationship at all but she couldn't help but think it was completely true. She made the decision to avoid any below the waist contact between her and Ron for a while, she needed to figure some things out before they got out of hand. She smiled to herself for making such a reasonable plan, maybe she hadn't completely lost her touch.

She onto her side and tried to get at least another hour of sleep, the movie continued playing as soon as she closed her eyes and she was now in Ron's arms snuggled up against his toned chest again. If nothing else that night felt right at least the feeling of Ron's arms around her made her feel safe and loved, something she was sure Lavender never got to experience. She might not be ready to sleep with the boy yet, but she was pretty sure was ready to spend the rest of her life with him.

**I know it was short but I needed a transition chapter sorry, next chapter will be up by Tuesday I promise. I am also thinking about starting another story because I am full of ideas for a direction I just can't take this particular story in. I plan I finishing this one up in a few more chapters, maybe more than few… so don't worry. Hope you understood where I was coming from in this chap! Reviews are appreciated, good and bad!**


	24. Chapter 24 Intense

Hermione had succeeded in avoiding any intimate contact with Ron for the better part of the next week. It was easier than she anticipated but she figured it had more to do with the first Quidditch match coming up and less to do with any action on her part. Ron had been spending almost every waking moment out of class on the pitch practicing and both Harry and Ginny were logging some extra hours as well, leaving Hermione to get caught up on her studies but she was growing antsy.

The day after their little sleepover Ron had tried to bring it up while they were studying in the common room. They had all but avoided talking about it because neither of them really knew what to say in regards to what was supposed to happen next.

**

"'mione… about the other night" he began.

Hermione pretended like she was caught up in her potions textbook, it was one thing to do what they did but it was a whole different thing to have an in depth conversation about it, just the thought made her blush. But Ron persisted.

"I know you can hear me, we have to talk about it sometime" he said sounding a little irritated.

Hermione sighed loudly and looked up from her book, she was met by Ron's pleading blue eyes. "I really don't know what there is to say. It was… fun." She gritted. What she really wanted to say was '_It was one of the most exhilarating moments of my life, but it scared the hell out of me so we won't be alone like that for a while. Sorry.'_

Ron stared at her blankly, that wasn't exactly the response he was looking for but at least it wasn't negative. He cleared his throat. "fun?"

Hermione bit her lip, this was definitely awkward. "well what would you call it?"

'_quite possibly the best night of my post-pubescent life. After the arguing part of course' _was the first thing the popped into his head but after hearing Hermione's take on it decided to tone it down.

"I was leaning towards intense… but I 'spose fun works" He started turning red, he wanted the conversation to end now. He had originally wanted to find out what that night meant for their relationship but now, now he just wanted to forget he ever asked and just hold on to the vivid memory of Hermione's actions instead of worrying about what might happen next.

"Intense works." She agreed. They exchanged nervous glances for a few moments.

"You hungry? We can head to dinner" Ron changed the subject, and that was the last time the two discussed it.

**

So now she found herself sitting in the empty stands watching the Gryffindor house practice in the dead of winter because her self-imposed ban on physical contact with Ron was affecting her more than she would like and unlike Ron she didn't have an aggressive outlet for all of the pent up frustration. She watched as Ron blocked practice shots for almost an hour before finally calling it quits and joined Harry on their way back inside. She couldn't tell if he just didn't notice her or if he intentionally left without acknowledging that she probably just lost two fingers to frostbite while sitting there.

She stood up to leave when she heard Ginny calling after her, she waited at the bottom of the stands and walked back with her friend.

"Has Ron said anything to you? I mean about us?" Hermione asked after making small talk about the upcoming match.

Ginny looked to her friend, the truth was that he had actually come to her for some advice but she wasn't sure if she wanted to let Hermione in on all the details. "Well what do you mean?"

Hermione shook her head. "Forget it, I'm just acting paranoid. He's just excited about the match, that's all he can talk about." She tried to convince herself.

"Is something going on with you two?" Ginny prodded, maybe she could get some information from Hermione that would help Ron figure out what to do since he was obviously at a loss for ideas.

But when Hermione didn't answer Ginny continued. "I just ask because you guys seem fine. I mean you are always together, unless he's practicing or you're studying. You seem happy so if there's something wrong you guys are doing a great job at hiding it" Ginny rambled, hoping to stir some particulars out of Hermione.

"I am. I am happy." Hermione finally admitted, to both herself and to Ginny. "and I am pretty sure he's happy, it's just lately it has been a little awkward…" Hermione fessed up. She knew when she had made the decision to back off the sex stuff with him for a while it might get a little stressful, but she hadn't even had the opportunity to enact this plan before Ron threw himself into Quidditch and he had only been alone with her twice since. And even then it was only for a few minutes before Harry showed up or they had to be somewhere.

"awkward?" Ginny asked.

"I guess that is the best way to describe it, I mean every time I see him I still get butterflies but lately we have a hard time spending any time together without encountering long stretches of awkward silence. " Hermione was half trying to figure it out for herself while still explaining the situation to Ginny.

"We'll I'm sure he's just distracted by the match, you know how intense he can get. "

"Really? You think that's it?" Hermione sounded hopeful.

"Well unless there is something else you're not telling me I don't see what else it could be" Ginny stated, knowing full well there was something else.

Hermione furrowed her brow, she couldn't help but think she had gotten trapped into spilling the details. Ginny was quite clever. Hermione sighed "He told you didn't he" Hermione gave in.

Ginny smiled, she knew she couldn't trick Hermione for long but silently applauded herself for getting her to admit something happened so easily. "He didn't tell me exactly. He just mentioned that something had happened and that he didn't know what he should do…"

"What he should do?? There is nothing to do, I just want us to take it slow…slow-er"

"Slow? Well how fast were you guys going?" Ginny couldn't help but chuckle at the analogy, Hermione smiled as well, followed by a deep red blush.

"Let's just say we could still go a little faster… but like I said I want to take it slow now." Hermione tried to explain.

"Ooohhh." Ginny figured it out pretty quickly. "Well have you told HIM that?"

"Well, no. I haven't had the chance. We almost talked about it a few days after but I kind of chickened out. And since then he's been so busy with school and practice that I just haven't really found the time. Not to mention I have no idea how I would start a conversation like that without making him feel like he should be guilty for something…" Hermione rambled on. She had spent the better part of a week over examining the situation and now that she was able to let it out to an actual person she found it hard to stop.

Ginny waited for her friend to finish her venting session. Her head was already filling up with ways to help her brother and one of her best friends out but she knew she had to make it seem natural.

"Well first of all you need to calm down about the whole thing, if you seem nervous or anxious when you talk to him he's just going to freak out even more. Let me talk to him and then we'll see what is going on." Ginny offered.

Hermione let out a sigh of relief. "You would do that? Thank you so much Gin I owe you!"

"Don't get too excited I can't promise anything, after all it is Ron." She half joked. "But I know he cares about you more than anything and just wants to make it work, so we'll try and come up with something ok?"

Hermione nodded, she didn't know what Ginny had up her sleeve but it had to be more helpful than all the ideas Hermione had already shot down in her head. "Well thank you for everything, even if it doesn't help thanks for trying."

The two girls finally found themselves inside. "So enough about me, does Ron know about you and Harry yet?"

**MORE SOON. Thanks for all the alerts and reviews, much appreciated.**


	25. Chapter 25 Dont I Look Fine?

**And so here it is. **

Ginny had all but forgotten that Hermione knew about her and Harry's relationship. She had done her best, at Harry's request, to keep it low key for a number of reasons none of which she disagreed with. The promise of making it official had been made though and she knew it was just a matter of time.

"It's as good as a SECRET relationship can be" Ginny replied, emphasizing the "secret" portion of her answer hoping Hermione would catch on before they entered the common room.

Hermione sighed and shook her head slightly, "I won't say anything. But I still don't entirely know why you guys aren't telling anybody…" she said quietly but dropped the subject once she saw that their two significant others were playing a game of wizard chess at the table.

As the girls approached them they received no acknowledgement as the game seemed to be quite close. Hermione placed a soft hand on Ron's shoulder which caused him to nearly jump out of his seat. He looked up to see a confused Hermione and immediately felt horrible.

"Hermione you scared me." He said placing a hand over his heart for dramatic effect before reaching out for her hand that was practically frozen extended out in front of her. He gave it a squeeze "Harry is about to beat me I didn't even notice you guys standing there, sorry" he tried to make eye contact but he could tell Hermione was still a little shocked by his initial reaction. He couldn't blame her.

Hermione didn't really know what to think, but she knew that she had been drastically OVER thinking things lately and reading into this would be ridiculous. However the awkward silence was still there and this time it had witnesses in the form of Harry and Ginny.

"Right. Well I'm going to go clean up, see you all at dinner" Ginny exclaimed before making her way to the stairs.

Harry looked between Hermione and Ron and had to contain a laugh.

Hermione finally snapped out of her daze, she gave Ron a quick smile and assured him everything was fine before calling after Ginny and joining her as they left the common room.

Harry watched as Ron seemed to be thinking a little too hard, he snapped his fingers in front of Ron's face to bring him back to the game.

"Sorry mate" Ron tried to focus back on the game, he was in a love/hate relationship with Hermione's ability to cripple him with one touch and the fact that he had no idea what to do about it.

Harry could tell something was up and it bothered him a little bit that they hadn't been able to talk like they used to before Hermione. "You ok?" he asked while he evaluated his next move on the board.

"Don't I seem ok" Ron responded completely aware of the dumbfounded look he had just plastered across his face and the mere touch from Hermione, he was sure to lace it with sarcasm.

Harry looked up and cocked his head to the side "You would seem pretty daft if you think that little interaction was normal."

Ron's shoulders sank as he let out a heavy sigh. "We don't have to talk about it don't worry" he stated while trying to get back to concentrating on the game which wasn't working in the least.

"It's ok to talk about Hermione with me… I mean if you want. It doesn't bother me at all. " Harry said trying to sound as sincere as possible, after all he was snogging his sister behind his back he hand to be a good friend somehow.

Ron felt oddly comforted by Harry's words, he knew they had mended their friendship, not that it was ever really broken, but Hermione was definitely a topic they had avoided for the past month. He could use some advice that didn't come from his little sister or older horny brothers. He contemplated for a moment before deciding that it couldn't hurt to get some type of advice.

"You sure?" he asked.

Harry was a little surprised that he was willing to talk but quite happy at the same time. "Of course."

"I guess there is really all the much to talk about, I'm just confused…" he knew confused wasn't really the right word but it was the best he could come up with.

"Second thoughts?" Harry asked tentatively.

"What? No not that. I'm standing firm with my first thoughts, I'm definitely in love with her." He smiled a little smile at the thought of the love of his life.

Harry chuckled. "Well then I don't see a problem. Have you told her?"

"First off it IS the problem, love is hell. Second, I guess technically yes but it wasn't in a confessing my love kind of way and it was kind of in an extreme situation."

Harry didn't know how to respond to his friend but was saved when Ron continued. "I think she loves me too, I mean she's never said it but I am pretty sure she does. But I feel like I keep doing things to scare her away, and eventually she'll probably turn to someone who doesn't scare the hell out of her every time they're alone… " Ron laid his fears out on the table.

"Why do you think you scare her?"

"I don't know, it's just every time we… have 'alone' time… afterwards she avoids me for some reason or another, even though she seems just as into it as I am when it happens." Ron continued to confess.

Harry had to clear his throat before speaking again. "So you guys have… then?" he had to admit he was a little wary of the answer.

"No, not yet… well I mean hopefully. If she ever tells me what the hell is wrong."

"Correct me if I'm wrong but weren't you the one that just jumped out of his chair when she touched you. It didn't look like she was avoiding you" Harry tried to play devil's advocate.

"I 'spose you're right but the fact that that is the first time she's touched me practically since that night she came over would count as avoiding. I was shocked that's all." Ron looked just as confused as before.

Harry tried to come up with something. "This might sound ridiculous but maybe you shouldn't focus on the 'touching' part so much for a while, maybe it does scare her but since she loves you, which by the way I most certainly think she does, she entertains the idea more than she would like and just gets caught up in the moment. I don't know what else to say, girls are daft." Harry was pretty pleased with his advice after he went back though it in his head.

Ron let the guidance sink in. "It can't hurt, but it's still awkward at the moment. And did I mention how impossibly hard it is to not want to do those things?" He half laughed to indicate that he was kidding but it was obviously true.

"To be completely honest… no. I have never really been physically attracted to her." Harry said hoping Ron wouldn't take offense.

"Well you're crazy but I guess I can see that since you were interested in my sister the whole time you two were involved" Ron shot back, not in a vindictive way though.

Harry caught a lump in his throat and his eyes went wide. "Uhh… I can explain" he tried.

Ron held up a hand to signal him to stop. "Harry, thanks for the advice with 'Mione but I don't think I want discuss you and my sister doing anything besides talking."

Harry felt a huge sigh of relief. "You'll still come to the wedding right?"

This time it was Ron's eyes that went wide. "I'm joking." Harry lied.

"I knew that" Ron lied and quietly noted to see if something had happened since Hermione was out of the picture for Harry. He would most definitely hint at it to Ginny. He would actually love for them to be together but wanted nothing to do with the details.

"Right, well I am supposed to study with Hermione tonight after dinner, if you want I can ditch and you can go. I think you guys should at least talk." Harry offered.

Ron saw Ginny and Hermione emerge from the staircase and turned to answer Harry. "Yeah, thanks." The girls approached the table but waited a few feet away for the boys to get up to join them. "If they ask… I won" Ron said as he got up from his seat. Harry rolled his eyes "Right, who's hungry?"

**Sorry it took so long guys. I keep promising quick updates then I get severely distracted/busy. I really do plan on updating more frequently so I can get this story finished and on to my next project, enjoy for now. Reviews are LOVED!**


	26. Chapter 26 Study Date

**Back after a what… 3 year hiatus, I have no idea why I just decided to finish this but it's happening. It'll be done by the end of the week. Atleast three more chapters, also have another story in the works. ENJOY!**

Hermione was snapped back to reality from the sound of books slamming on the desk next to her. She was a little dazed and the 5th year who had committed the clatter just glanced at her apologetically. Hermione shook her head and tried to refocus on her work, she read the same line about five times before she decided to give it up for the night. As she packed up her things she silently cursed Harry for never showing up to study that night, because now, she had instead spent the whole night drifting into thoughts about her relationship with Ron instead of potion procedures.

She had only made it three steps out of the library before she nearly collided with a hurried looking Ron. He had looked like he came straight from the shower and his hair was still damp and shaggy.

"Mione, I'm sorry. I'm running late, I had extra practice." Ron blurted out as he scrambled to pick up the books he dropped. He finally collected them all and came to face Hermione with a worried grin. She was taken aback by the whole situation, he was the last person she's expect to see right then. But one look at him with a pencil tucked cutely behind his ear. She suppressed a chuckle.

"What do you mean you're running late?" was all Hermione could think of, she knew for a fact she had no plans with him.

"Harry didn't tell you?" Ron asked, she simply shook her head in confusion. "What a little prat… well earlier today he told me he wasn't going to be able to make it tonight so I said I'd come but then I had quidditch and… well now I'm here… I guess" Ron shrugged his shoulders knowing full well the situation was pretty much a fail.

Hermione's mood was lifted somehow, he hadn't acted like this since they first started seeing each other. He seemed nervous and flustered, and she knew she shouldn't really admit it but he was adorable like this. She suddenly had a change of heart about being done with studying.

"Well, after you" she smiled and gestured towards the library entrance.

Ron breathed a huge sigh of relief and smiled. "Ladies first" he replied.

Hermione playfully rolled her eyes and led the way. Instead of sitting in her regular secluded corner Hermione chose on of the study tables in the main room and sat directly across from Ron.

Ron opened his book first but simply sat and watched as Hermione set up her area. Hermione noticed Ron watching her before she could pull out her second book and paused.

"What?" she asked while blushing just the tiniest bit.

"Nothing" he looked down to his book but kept a smile on his face.

Hermione knew it wasn't 'nothing' but continued to unpack her books, making sure to sneak a few glances of her own in his direction. It was until she finally started taking notes that she felt his eyes on her again.

"Can I help you?" she teased.

Just seeing her and having a normal interaction for the first time in over a week seemed to dispose of any hostility between them. He knew with them it would never be "normal" but for now he wasn't going to miss the opportunity just to spend time with her.

"Yeah, you can actually" he replied.

"Oh really? How is that?" she was intrigued.

Ron sensed her leaning forward with interest, he knew he had her. He quickly turned he books she could read it, "Can you explain this process to me, I practically failed the test last week" he looked at her earnestly.

Hermione was slightly shocked, she looked to his eyes then back to the book and back to his eyes again trying to search for any sign that this a joke. She honestly couldn't tell and chose to just help him with the homework. The two worked for the next hour on their assignments speaking freely without any tension. Hermione loved that they had finally spent some time together even if it meant only talking about potions and plants.

As they were packing up Ron had pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Hermione. He had managed to scribble it down while Hermione was buried in one of her books, he had to admit it was a cheesy plan but he was pretty sure it would work.

"Hey I'm supposed to read a chapter from that book" he said pointing to the title writing out on the paper, "do you know where it is in here?"

Hermione looked down "yeah wait here I know exactly where it is, be right back" she said as she left her bag on the table and started walking down a corridor of shelves. She had gone about fifteen rows and took a sharp right, she immediately began scanning for the book Ron needed. She was making her way to the end of the row, closer to the book she was looking for when she heard a footstep behind her. She quickly turned and reached for her wand instinctively. Before she could grab her wand she felt a hand on her hip gently pushing her back up against the book shelf.

"Calm down it's just me" Ron whispered against her ear.

Hermione's hands had defensively found their way to Ron's chest where she was feebly attempting to push him away, more as a reflex than anything else. As she let out a sigh of relief she spoke "what are you doing?" she said barely above a whisper. Her excitement started to build.

Ron grinned and leaned in "You did think I was actually going to read did you…" he said in a husky low voice just inches from her face. He closed the gap and kissed her deeply, his hands remaining innocently on her hips. Hermione didn't resist for a second, in fact her knees nearly gave out before he pulled away. They were both breathing deeply, he looked her in the eyes and brought a hand up to cup her face. "Don't worry" he leaned in for another slow deep kiss and pulled away once again "we'll go slow". He searched her eyes for an answer but heard voices approaching and quickly broke free of the embrace and started back down the row.

Hermione's breath caught in her throat. There was definitely something wrong with them, you could cut the tension between them for the past few weeks with a knife but somehow if they found themselves alone for more than five seconds they couldn't keep their hands off of each other.

"Are you coming?" she heard him call back.

She shook head and brought herself back to reality. He was already at the table and picking up her bag for by the time she got back to the main room. She approached him quickly with a million things she wanted to say running through her head, but somehow when he turned to face her she forgot every single one.

"Here" he said handing her the bag. The two of them exited the library and made their way back to the Gryffindor common room. Hermione was more or less still in shock, they hadn't had a real kiss since the night in the boys dormitory weeks earlier her skin was literally buzzing.

When they were nearly to the door Hermione finally stopped "Ron, what the hell was that?" she wasn't angry, more like shocked.

Ron quickly held up his hands up in surrender "Woah… calm down" he took an dramatic step back but smiled as he did as to make sure she knew he wasn't being too serious. "It was just a kiss." He continued, "I just wanted to kiss you, that's all" his tone of voice was playful and Hermione didn't know what he was getting at.

Hermione scoffed "Just a kiss?!" she shook her head trying to clear it of all the thoughts that were racing through it.

Ron could tell it got to her, and he wasn't sorry, it was about time they broke the ice that had formed around them a week earlier. He couldn't help but be a little proud of himself, he didn't know he had that in him. But now that he knew he was for sure going to use the tactic more often, he was loving the results.

Hermione stood for a moment and gathered her wits, she looked at him and the grin he just couldn't hide tipped her off at his game. Well two could play now, she grinned back.

"Well next time…" she stepped closer and whispered "it better be more than JUST a kiss" she smiled and turned to enter the common room.

**MORE SOON! Reviews are greatly appreciated as motivation is key at the moment haha. Hope you liked, more very soon. **


	27. Chapter 27 just not here

***once again it's been forever and I apologize. No promises but looking to finish this up and start a new one in the next two weeks.***

The couple entered the common room, both with a slight blush dancing on their cheeks. Hermione was still humming from the kiss, she hadn't realized how much she needed that. It was as if she had been walking around half asleep for the past week and she had finally woken up. Ron followed her a few steps back, he saw Harry and Ginny sitting on the couch in the corner and knew that was where she was heading. He tried to catch up to her before she reached them, he wanted to continue this conversation he wanted a clear definitive answer on how much 'more than just a kiss' was. He couldn't play these guessing games anymore, besides the fact that he was terrible at them.

He was too late, Hermione sat down right next to Ginny and started talking about classes. Ron was a little confused, he took his place in the chair across facing the couch.

"How was the study date Ron?" Harry asked with a grin on his face. This usually would have irritated Ron but since the outcome of this particular study session was fairly fantastic, he decided to play along.

"Fine, ask Hermione. She did most of the studying." He bantered back.

Hermione raised her eyebrows in amusement. "Oh yeah, got loads done." She said sarcastically "especially with Ron sending me on scavenger hunts for books he'll never read" she daggered at him, but it was playful.

"right, like I didn't help look for them" Ron responded with a raise of his own eyebrows. He was enjoying this exchange, he almost forgot about Harry and Ginny. The feeling of comfort came out of nowhere and he had to admit, the timing couldn't have been better.

Hermione seemed to back off a little "Harry where were you by the way?"

Harry had been watching the banter between the two and figured his plan had worked, at least a little bit. They were talking, not arguing and he was pretty sure he had seen them both smile since they walked into the room, a rare sight in a last few weeks.

"Sorry had to help Gin" he half-heartedly lied as he put an arm around his girlfriend.

Hermione and Ron both rolled their eyes a little bit.

The group continued to talk amongst themselves for a little bit. Ron and Hermione continued to lock eyes for moments then quickly look away, it wasn't awkward, it was practically palpable. During the last eye contact moment Ron absent mindedly licked his lips, Hermione couldn't help herself.

"Ok well I'm off to bed" she made a move to get up. Ron shifted in his seat, she could tell he was deciding whether to get up or stay put. She smiled towards and started in his direction which effectively kept him in his seat. When she reached the arm chair Ron looked up to her, she was leaning down and before he knew it her lips were on his. It was a brief kiss but it was all it took to render him speechless.

"Goodnight" she smiled before walking towards the girls dorm.

Harry and Ginny had witnessed the entire exchange, they looked at each other, they both thought Ron and Hermione were acting odd. Not in a bad way, but definitely not their normal interaction. Ginny gave Harry a quick kiss on the cheek "yeah I'm going to go talk to her" she hushed as he got up to follow Hermione.

"Hermione, wait up" Ginny called out.

Both girls disappeared up the stairs.

Ron stared after them till they were gone. When he turned back around Harry's questioning look knocked him back into reality a little bit. "What?" he gaffed.

Harry could tell something was up but was in no mood to pry it out of him, he knew that when Ron was ready he would blurt it out at some unnecessary moment. "Whatever you say mate" he half laughed.

"You ready, we have an early practice in the morning" Ron said as he was already half way to the boys dormitory.

"Yeah" was all Harry said before standing and joining him.

It had been a few days and a regular routine had formed. Classes went as usual, Ron would go to practice in the afternoons then make it a point to meet Hermione in the library for a quick study session. They both knew it was more of Ron sitting around waiting for Hermione to spontaneously need to go look for a text book somewhere in a dark stacks. And without fail Hermione would feel his eyes on her, burning through her and all it took was one quick second of eye contact before they were necking in the back corner.

The two of them would return to the common room flushed and with grins from ear to ear, they simply couldn't help themselves. Hermione recalled thinking to herself how crazy their relationship was, one minute they were hot the next they were ice cold but no matter what she couldn't imagine him not being in her life, even if he infuriated her often. She figured that was why she was so happy for the last week, the only arguing they had done had been teasing each other about stupid little things. The makeout sessions in the library were just dangerous enough to keep everything exciting and if she was being honest with herself it was turning her on more and more each time. She could tell Ron was feeling it as well, she could literally feel the evidence. But he wasn't pressuring her at all, he wouldn't go any further than a little groping here and there. She couldn't tell if he was respecting her wishes from weeks earlier to take it slow, or using this tactic to make her want him more. Either way the latter was definitely working.

On the night before the match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, Ron and Hermione were sitting in the library as per usual. Ron was a little distracted, no doubt his pre-match nerves were kicking in big time and while he usually got at least one assignment done during these study sessions he hadn't even opened a book at this point.

"mione" he whispered across the table. She glanced up from her paper. Ron darted his eyes towards the library stacks as to hint what he was really here for.

Hermione sighed "I'm almost finished" she smiled but returned to her writing. Ron didn't fully approve of this response and instead slowly stood up and took Hermione's hand in his and pulled her gently up from the table. She resisted a little at first but knew it was pointless, she needed a break anyway. They slowly walked through the stacks, inadvertently going further back than normal.

As soon as the coast was clear Ron began placing kisses along Hermione's neck, she tangled her hands in his hair, she loved it when he kissed her neck. He slowly backed them up until she was against the shelves, he pulled away and cupped her face, "hey" he smiled at her. She looked up at him, for some reason the one word seemed to mean so much more than just "hey".

"hey back" she blushed; before standing up on her tiptoes to bring her lips to his. It was timid and gentle, Ron returned the kiss slowly but eagerly. Within in minutes however the gentle kiss was surpassing even their most intense session in recent memory. Hermione began to feel Ron's hand glide up her thigh and under her skirt, he deepened the kiss as he did so. Soon his other hand slid under her skirt as well, both hands now effectively cupping her ass and slightly lifting her closer to him. Hermione whimpered as he left her mouth and found her neck again using his hand to pull her even closer.

Hermione was still aware that they were in a very public place but she was finding it very hard to fight the feeling that was washing over her. She wanted to think this came out of nowhere, but she would be kidding herself if she thought their whole relationship thus far had been fueled by sexual tension. By this time Ron brought a hand to the front of her panties and Hermione suddenly snapped all the way back to reality.

"Ron stop… not… here" she breathed out heavily. Ron retracted his hands and tried to catch his breath, he touched her forehead with his.

"Sorry…got a little carried away" he half sighed, half grinned against her lips. He knew they couldn't do anything he just wanted to stay close to her.

"It's ok" she was finally catching her breath. She placed her hands on his chest. "just not here…"

***update. Been a while. More very soon. Sorry for the wait as usual.**


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